Edinburgh Napier duo scoop DMA ‘young guns’ award

dma breakthroughEdinburgh Napier University duo Jez Carr and Alex Schotten have landed this year’s DMA Breakthrough Award, designed to celebrate the next generation of talent coming into the industry.

As part of this challenge, set by sponsor PwC, students across the UK were invited to develop a multi-channel marketing campaign to help build responsible growth in the food and beverage sector.

Carr and Schotten, who entered as The Bright Goldfish team, presented an imaginative idea worthy of an experienced creative team, the judges said.

The campaign, “Conscious Cup-ling”, made an emotional connection with the audience to encourage them to reconnect with reusable drinks cups. It also considered how to deliver responsible business growth, while supporting small businesses and changing consumer behaviour.

The winners receive a cash prize of £1,000.

Students from the University of Westminster, with ‘The Pret Juicebox’ campaign, took the silver award and students from the University of Gloucestershire, with the ‘For the Forgetful’ campaign, took the bronze – winning a £500 and £250 prize each respectively.

PwC partner Tom Adams said: “Following a very challenging couple of years for many businesses, we wanted the students to think of a way to support sales growth, while considering the environmental impact of increasing consumption.

“The Conscious Cup-ling campaign achieved this with an idea that was truly innovative, emotive and environmentally friendly. We were incredibly happy to support this award and help to champion the future stars of the UK data and marketing industry.

“We were hugely impressed with the calibre of the pitches and the levels of creativity the teams brought to us and it was very hard to choose between the three shortlisted teams.”

DMA Talent general manager Kate Burnett added: “The Breakthrough Award is a great way for young people to learn about the industry while working on a meaningful project for a leading international business.

“We’re seeing so much interest from students across the UK in the award, so it is testament to the calibre of work delivered by the students based in Edinburgh to secure gold this year.

“The data and marketing industry is for anyone who is creative, strategic and determined – we are certainly observing these qualities from the talent entering campaigns into this award.”

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