Member Article

Front stages inaugural 2020 Creative Challenge

Front – the Sheffield based creative agency - has staged its first ever student challenge to inspire and find the best young and up and coming creative talent in the UK.

Called the 2020 Creative Challenge, the project was staged in conjunction with the University of Lincoln and saw 24 students from its creative advertising course take part.

Led by Frankie De Giorgio - creative director at Front and Lucy Redmond, account director - the challenge was based around Costcutter Supermarkets Group, Front’s longstanding client. The creative brief was to communicate Costcutter’s “Shop the way you live” strapline and the changing shopping habits of customers across the category.

Fred Loveder & Aaron Watson were the joint overall winners and they will now undertake a work placement with Front.

The project was briefed to industry standards and included category research and understanding, consumer insights along with the delivery of multiple concepts with supporting rationales. Each student presented their work to the assembled judges and their peers.

David Pettitt, programme leader and senior lecturer at University of Lincoln’s School of Design, said: “A course like ours depends on being able to test our students with real creative briefs, from real creative businesses. The experience of working with industry professionals, like the team from Front, who can expertly bring to life the challenges and expectations of live work, is essential for helping us shape industry-ready creatives. Also, the agencies who are willing to lend their time and expertise to this kind of project are always the ones who are able to see the sense and value in nurturing the next generation of creative thinkers.”

Frankie De Giorgio commented: “Nurturing and developing young talent is something that we as an agency want to do more of but it has to be done in a practical and beneficial way. The 2020 Creative Challenge clearly demonstrated the wealth of creative thinking and insight that our university students have so we are now looking forward to doing similar initiatives with more institutions over the coming months and years.”

Frankie added: Aaron and Fred were chosen as we were impressed by their professional approach, storytelling presentation and creative solution – they really listened to, and took on board, what we were looking for. They also sold their creative ideas to us through genuine research and insights, backed up with strong rationale, clearly answering the brief“

Fred said: “When you’re set such an interesting brief it gives a young creative like myself a chance to show off my skills in an industry scenario. This will certainly assist me when I venture into the advertising world. It was a pleasure to meet the team from Front and I am grateful for the opportunity they gave me and Aaron.”

Whilst Aaron added: “Working on the Costcutter brief was a challenging experience that we loved as it’s a good opportunity to test our creative skills in a professional setting. I’m really grateful for the tutelage Front provided and the process in which I tackle briefs has definitely changed for the better.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Front .