Registrations for Creative Challenge close soon, foreboding violin plays in background
We all know the marcomms community thrives under pressure. As a result, entries tend to come in at the last minute (that was certainly the case for entries into this year’s Marketing Awards). And time is running out to get your name in the hat for the Creative Challenge—and get your hands on the $125,000 prize—with registrations for the inaugural event set to close tomorrow.
The Adshel folk behind this pretty damn cool inaugural event are hoping the initial burst of excitement from agency folk following the announcement a few weeks back will lead to a few more official registrations trickling in in the next day or two and adding to the solid list of competitors already on the books. And with pizza from Toto’s, booze from NZ Pure, ego points, warm fuzzies, a bit of kulcha and a prize worth $125,000, it’s highly likely that you will become an industry laughing stock if you don’t sign up to take part in next week’s festivities. So do it here.
The head judge has also been announced, and it’s Oliver Maisey, who’s just back from a few years at BBDO in Dubai, where he says he spent most of the time making people redundant during a fairly dramatic recession. Prior to that, he was executive creative director at M&C Saatchi and even further back worked with DraftFCB, Curious and Generator Bates and, after returning to New Zealand in November last year, he is now running a little production company called Augusto.
When he sees something good and interesting, he says it’s a wonderful thing and he hopes the Creative Challenge is something that will help inspire more of the good and interesting in the outdoor realm. And while he says there’s been this massive explosion of media, he says this traditional medium is still a very important one.
With new display and smartphone-related technology he says it has been reinvented recently, but if you’re clever, he believes it can be just as powerful and compelling than many modern online executions. And when outdoor is creative enough to spark awareness from all the people going about their daily business, he believes it can show exactly what advertising is meant to do.
The generous folks at Boston Digital have also come on board as the print sponsor of the event and it will be whipping out 260 posters come February for two campaigns, 130 of the winning Fringe posters that will be created on the night, and 130 for the winning agency’s client of choice, which is either a good chance to either grease up to your big clients, or possibly help out one of the charities on the books.
What do you think?