Applications for NextGen stream at ad:tech now open
Digital marketing and media conference ad:tech has announced that applications for the NextGen stream are now open to final year business, media and marketing students.
The announcement:
Australia’s top digital marketing and media conference ad:tech today announced that applications for the NextGen stream are now open to final year business, media and marketing students.
NextGen, which takes place on March 19 at Sydney Hilton, is a free, one-day program designed to educate the next generation of “Digital Rockstars” from Australia’s top universities. The program provides students access to leading digital brands including Google, Facebook and News Corp, some of the world’s leading creative, media and digital agencies, plus the chance to develop and pitch a creative campaign to a judging panel of senior industry professionals.
The creative challenge, which is headed by Jenny Williams, Managing Partner of Ideagarden, will see student teams create a campaign to promote MakeLoveNotPorn.com to fellow young Australians. Following a formal workshop in creativity and ideation, the students will watch Cindy Gallop’s TED talk on #realworldsex, with which she launched MakeLoveNotPorn. She argues that the absence of a healthy open dialogue around sex in the real world is leading to porn distorting how young men and women think about sex. MakeLoveNotPorn’s tagline is ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference.’
The campaigns will be pitched back to the group, and then formally judged by a panel of industry thought leaders who will evaluate each pitch based on its originality, relevance, practicality, and innovation using digital, social channels and data. The winners will be notified at the end of the day. All campaign pitches will be videotaped and sent to Cindy to review and potentially use.
ad:tech head of content, Chris Edwards, said that the NextGen challenge would showcase the best of young Australian marketing talent and bring a fresh perspective to ad:tech 2014.
“This year, ad:tech will play a part in bridging the talent gap in Australia’s digital sector by connecting Australia’s brightest university talent with some of the world’s leading digital brands and experts.The stream is all about offering students training in creative ideation, experience in group work, and the opportunity to pitch a real-life campaign,” he said.
“We’ve chosen a hugely worthwhile project as part of the campaign challenge, one that we think will really inspire the students. We are delighted that Cindy has allowed us to make her TED talk the centerpiece of the challenge.”
MakeLoveNotPorn founder Cindy Gallop said ad:tech’s NextGen challenge would help make real world sex socially acceptable amongst Australian youth.
“Just as with everywhere else in the world, we need an open discussion around #realworldsex in Australia to combat the influence of porn as default sex education for young men and women,’ she said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what the students create during the NextGen challenge, and I hope that the campaigns will encourage Australians to talk more openly, honestly and truthfully about sex, in order to have more people MakeAussieLoveNotPorn!”
Applications for the ad:tech NextGen challenge are now open here.
ad:tech is held on March 18-19, 2014. For more information or flexible ticketing options click here: http://www.adtechaustralia.com/.
Source: Launch Group media release
