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APG Young Talent Award


It’s the opportunity for Young Talent to tell us your ideas. Create a brand from scratch that will appeal to your person (aged 16-22) and you could win an APG Young Talent Award.

More about the Young Talent Award

The Account Planning Group, the world’s leading authority in brand and communication planning, announces a new prize to celebrate the power of young people’s creative thinking. The APG Young Talent Award is a nationwide competition for students to design an original brand that will appeal to their peer group. Submissions will have to prove to a panel of the communications industry’s most experienced judges that their brand is based on such genuine market need and consumer insight that it would be a successful brand amongst a 16- to 22-year-old audience. The judging panel will also include a venture capitalist looking to invest and make the best entries a reality. All entrants will, of course, retain intellectual property rights.

Entrants who make the final short-list will be invited to the prestigious APG Awards held in London on 6th October 2011. These Awards showcase the best creative strategic thinking and are a much anticipated event in the calendar of the UK advertising industry. A Gold, Silver and Bronze award will be announced and the short-listed papers published in Campaign’s APG Awards edition. As Campaign is the advertising industry’s leading trade journal, often referred to as the ad industry’s ‘bible’, this exposure will give the shortlisted entrants unparalleled publicity within the advertising world. Shortlisted papers will also be published by the APG and distributed to leading advertisers and marketers in the UK.

All of which might prove handy in getting a job. Or in becoming a multi-millionaire builder of brands.

Entry conditions

(1) Entries should be no more than 1,000 words and have to be submitted by Friday 26th August 2011. All entries should be sent via email as PDF file. Send to alison@apg.org.uk. All entries will be acknowledged.

(2) All entrants must have been in full-time education on 1st January 2011. Please note that the age range of 16 to 22 indicates the target market for the new brand, and it’s not a requirement that an entrant’s age should be within this age range.

Tips On Creating A Brand

(1) What is your creation? What product or service are you selling?

- What is the product or service at the heart of your brand? - What is special about it? - Bear in mind, that you can create anything: from a tangible product you can use or eat, to an internet brand that only exists virtually (e.g. Twitter).

(2) What brand are you building around this product or service?

- What is your brand called? Does it have a slogan or strapline? - What are people really buying into when they buy your brand? Think: * Honda (“The Power Of Dreams”) – optimism & imagination * Nike (“Just Do It”) – relentless passion for sport * Sony (“Like.No.Other”)– a hunger for unique experiences - What imagery do you want your brand to be associated with? (Think about the homemade playfulness of ‘Ben & Jerry’s’ or the ‘wide awake’ imagery you find on all Kellogg’s breakfast cereal boxes or the simplicity you see when you open an iPod box for the first time.) - You don’t have to design a logo or draw anything (though you can if you want) but give examples of the sort of visual world your brand would occupy (you could create a mood board – a collection of images that bring your brand’s visual world to life).

(3) Why should 16-22 year olds get excited about your brand?

- What insight into consumer behaviour is your brand built on? - What untapped consumer needs does it answer? - You need to convince us that a young person of your age is going to be interested in your brand.

(4) Why should people invest in this brand?

- At its simplest: how will your brand make money? If the point of your brand is not to make money (it might not be – see “Frank” as an example), why would it be worth investing in? - Who will be its main competitors? How will your brand be different?


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