Ollie and Rob, who own and run crack marketing recruiters Pitch Consultants, had an idea for a way to encourage Birmingham’s graduating students to actually consider working in the city where they learned their trade rather than jumping on the first train to London, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, or wherever.
The idea was an awards scheme where students are asked to answer a fictional creative brief from a number of different viewpoints - marketing, graphic design, public relations, advertising, etc. The best entries would win paid work placements at agencies and clients throughout Birmingham and the wider region.
We met in the pub to talk it over and spoke about how Birmingham is 'a hive of creative talent' that needed to be exposed to the opportunities on offer in the city. Or something like that.
That line kinda stuck - and B-Hive was born. Almost a decade on and B-Hive alumni are plying their trades all over the region and beyond.
You gotta earn your stripes, kids.
Birmingham. A hive of creative and marketing talent.
Reinventing the message a couple of years later.
Launching the initiative.