Students from the AAA School of Advertising received more than just
international props when they took the top spot in a creative challenge, set by
the BBC World News Service.
When Catherine Andrews, Tali Halili and Thandeka Kunene began an internship
at JWT South Africa in November 2013, they looked forward to gaining practical
creative experience with the highly regarded international advertising agency.
Their training was fast-tracked when they were assigned as competing
participants in a BBC challenge targeted at young creatives based outside of the
UK.
The project presented a perfect opportunity for three bright eyed and bushy
tailed interns to get their hands dirty working on a real life pitch, with the extra
perk of being able to add some serious stand-out cred to their CVs and a cut of
the £3 000 prize money to their student bank accounts.
The JWT interns responded to the global brief, which was was to sell the BBC
Worldwide Service to the youth market in their own country, with a concept
which has become contagious on the social media scene: FOMO – Fear Of
Missing Out.
“We all have this fear that there are far better events and things happening
other than what we are doing,’ says Halili who notes that a lot of people were
motivated to watch the news to constantly stay in the know and avoid awkward
conversations where they may not know what people are talking about. “Being
able to join in group conversations becomes important. So we put the two
findings together… and BOOM! A brilliant idea was born!’ she adds.
Ronnie Malden, Creative Director of JWT Johannesburg thought their
interpretation of the brief was very effective: “The idea that the BBC can
“squash’ FOMO is right and relevant for the youth market. FOMO really resonates
with their culture of Facebook, Twitter and social media.’
Together with Art Director John Meyer, Malden offered guidance throughout the
process, which he believed was a valuable undertaking for the students.
“It gave them the opportunity to think through their idea, their strategy and
their execution. They also learned about the pressure of doing a project in real
time with a real deadline in a real agency environment,’ says Malden.
Under expert mentorship, Halili, Andrews and Kunene were able to complete a
crash course in conceptualising, teamwork and project management which
resulted in the epic win they had been hoping for.
“When we received the news we were all in complete surprise! The first thing I
did was phone Tali and Thandeka, we screamed solidly for about five minutes in
excitement. We were so happy and humbled, we still can’t believe it,’ says
Andrews.
A BBC statement concludes: “We had a brilliant response to the Global Creative
Challenge, and were overwhelmed with the amount of outstanding, creative
entries we received from all corners of the globe. The winning entry was chosen
due to its particularly pertinent insight into the youth of South Africa (and
possibly the youth of the developed world). It also ties in very well to their
creative concept around promoting the BBC to this particular audience.’
