The headhunting firm Daniel Marks have been tackling diversity and gender equality issues head on this year with their Big Bang Creative and Marketing Internship Scheme.
Working closely with The Prince’s Trust, A New Direction and a number of local colleges - Daniel Marks have been attracting a wide pool of young creative talent from diverse backgrounds to submit creative entries in answer to a brief.
With 100 Judges from 75 Companies - over 50 Young People now have meetings to discuss a Paid Internship!
With three roundtable events over two weeks, all finalists work was reviewed by a panel of Judges of Executive Creative Director’s and Heads of Marketing from agencies including Mother, Grey, Havas, Publicis, Ogilvy & Mather, R/GA, AnalogFolk and Razorfish and from Brands including Innocent, Farfetch, BBC, The Guardian, Innocent, GHD, Vita Coco and notonthehighstreet.com
This year’s brief was to ‘Create a brand and advertise an IFO - an Identified Flying Object’.
Applications had to include a brand name and identity of IFO, 3 pieces of advertising and a 2 page study to show creative strategy. All work was reviewed by the Creative team at Daniel Marks who presented over 50 finalists work at the roundtable events in the Daniel Marks offices by Oxford Circus.
As well as tackling diversity issues the scheme aims to improve gender equality and has been working closely with Creative Equals. This year 50% of the Judges were female leaders in their field and over 50% of females were shortlisted in the Finalists category of young people.
The scheme was promoted through creative workshops, social media and in the National Press with The Guardian and Trade Press with Campaign.
100 Applications were received and over 50 Finalists were shortlisted to be presented at each of three roundtable events at the Daniel Marks offices by Oxford Circus.
Entries included ‘Up’ a build your own toy kit which can make anything fly; ‘Bug’ a tiny flying running mate you program a route to follow whilst running that also functions as a tour guide to ‘Birdie’ - a camera you throw in the air to take a group selfie with the slogan ‘Don’t take a selfie - take a Birdie’.
The Winner of 'The Rising Star Award' this year however was BIG ideas man Anthony Morrison-Bowen, 24, who’s NasDrone is a flying AI device that with its VR headset you connect with your personal drone akin to a second life. Standing for Nimrod Augmented Systems (NAS) it gives you the ability to connect with other users referred to as ‘pilots’ to form a community.
Anthony’s background is not unusual. He’d always wanted to work in advertising but didn’t know how to get a start. He was forced to drop out of college at London Metropolitan in his second year and always struggled with academia. Anthony had to leave home at 16 and worked at Camden Council as a Community Officer before setting up a local delivery service. Whilst sat at his desk at home in Waltham Cross, he searched online for Advertising Internships and saw the details of Big Bang. He applied via Eventbrite to attend the event Daniel Marks we were holding with A New Direction in Farringdon to hear about the brief and how to apply! The rest is Nasdrone..
When told he was the Winner of this years’ Big Bang Rising Star Award and he had a number of agencies and brands keen to meet him – his first words were ‘I feel dizzy!’ That’s also the way a lot of the judges felt when hearing of his idea – only to realise the potential and open thinking in the way his IFO was not only an incredible concept, it was an ideology that could not only change the way we live but the world we live in. His advertising of his Nasdrone also showed a creative flair and a drawing of a train moving through the tube as the billboard interacts with the public is akin to a moving image through pencil and paper.
Anthony's clearly a rare gem that needs a home to develop his ideas and thoughts and we look forward to seeing where his natural talent takes him once he starts his internships.
With over 100 Judges from 75 Companies attending the three roundtable events - 170 meetings were confirmed for over 50 Finalists which is a great result!
Agencies and brands involved in the scheme this year included:
Mother, R/GA, Grey, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, AnalogFolk, Havas Worldwide, MullenLowe Profero, DARE, Oliver, Havas Helia, Brave, Possible, Sapient Razorfish, AKQA, Albion, Kitcatt Nohr, VCCP, Wunderman, St Luke’s, TMW, Design Studio, FCB Inferno, CHI & Partners, Ogilvy & Mather, 101 London, Mr. President, HSE Cake, The Red Brick Road, Beattie McGuinness Bungay, TBWA, Now, Atomic, Innocent, STA Travel, The Guardian, Deezer, Soap & Glory, BrewDog, BestSeller, Just Eat, Abel & Cole, BBC, Topman, Dr.Martens, The Culture Trip, Save the Children, Home Retail Group, notonthehighstreet.com, SBTV, Vita Coco
A number of the people involved in the scheme have been keen to share their views on the roundtable events and the Big Bang initative with some selected quotes below.
Moving into 2017 Big Bang will be back and even BIGGER than ever!
Project Tags
Companies
VCCP
- Advertising
AKQA
- Design
Grey London
- Advertising
Ogilvy
- Advertising
BBC
- Media Production
TBWA\London
- Advertising
The Dots
- Technology
Mr. President
- Advertising
Havas Group
- Advertising
notonthehighstreet
- Retail
POSSIBLE
- Marketing & PR
OgilvyOne
- Advertising
Creative Equals
- Social Enterprise
Publicis Sapient
- Design
R/GA
- Advertising
Daniel Marks - Creative Headhunters
- Design
Saatchi and Saatchi
- Advertising
Innocent
- Retail
OLIVER Agency
- Advertising
