A Creative Media student’s proposed Snapchat campaign urging people to reduce litter has won a national competition run by the UK’s leading body for advertising professionals.
Angela Nogales, 20, will see her creative idea turned into an actual Snapchat advert after she came first in the challenge set by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
Creative Media Level 3 Diploma students at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) were encouraged to enter during a visit to global advertising agency M&C Saatchi Group.
They were invited to the company’s UK head office in Westminster as part of the IPA’s Advertising Unlocked programme, which sees UK agencies join forces for a nationwide careers open day.
Angela’s entry included background research on littering and solutions to the problem before going on to explain how her Snapchat campaign would encourage people to take action.
She said: “The idea for the campaign came from the research I did about this important topic and the Snapchat app. Firstly, I wanted to acknowledge the problem and what we can do to solve it., and then I looked at who the target audience was and what content would engage with them.
“I came up with an idea to create short, visual and dynamic information in a format the audience was familiar with to form an active community on Snapchat. I wanted to motivate them in a personal way by making them remember each one of us can do something small to make a big difference.”
Advertising Unlocked introduces students to career options in the industry with agencies running practical activities from workshops and interactive discussions to tours and creative challenges.
Bethan Neil, Senior Marketing Executive, Diversity and Effectiveness, at IPA, said the competition judges were “thoroughly impressed” by Angela’s campaign idea.
Referring to the judges’ comments, she added: “Your research is interesting, concise and clearly fed into your idea. You’ve constructed a clear narrative laying out the problem, the solution and how creatively you could help deliver that solution.
“You’ve answered the brief well, helping to genuinely change behaviour. Some of your ideas are more tactical which is great to see, highlighting the problems, but some of them are more creative and are a proper innovative use of Snapchat features, which is exactly what we wanted to see.”
M&C Saatchi Group was founded in 1995 and has operations spanning 23 countries including major hubs in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
During the visit, students heard about the industry from Chief Creative Officer Ben Golik before taking part in a two-hour workshop where they worked on a real creative brief.
They were also given a tour of the building before meeting representatives from across the sector at a speed networking event including those working in strategy and production.
Natasha Amegbe, Lecturer in Creative Media and Computing, said: “The students were thrilled to have the chance to visit a globally renowned creative agency and network with people already working in the advertising sector.
“This was also a fantastic opportunity for our students to link what they have learnt in the classroom to actual careers by working on an actual brief. They received excellent feedback from staff at the agency who were very impressed with their ideas, and all left feeling very inspired.”
CONEL is continuing to work with M&C Saatchi as part of the Advertising Unlocked programme with the agency providing students with live briefs and giving feedback on their work.
