Edinburgh student lands DMA Breakthrough Award

Edinburgh College student Joy Mooney has won this year’s DMA Breakthrough Award, the scheme which is backed by the Graeme Robertson Trust and designed to attract young talent to the industry.
Each year university students battle it out for the chance to impress some of the biggest names in marketing by working on a live creative brief, for a real client or business. The winner gets a cash prize of £1,000, and the potential to intern at a top agency.
This year’s brief was provided by Direct Line Group, which invited students to develop integrated marketing plans that would reposition the brand to a younger target audience.
Applicants were required to provide strategies to drive quotes and sales for new car insurance, building awareness and excitement for the brand and telematics product, and increasing understanding and awareness of telematics/’black box’ insurance.
Direct Line Group head of campaign strategy and planning Iain Agnew said that Mooney’s ‘Your secret is safe with us’ pitch put the consumer first, while successfully managing to integrate her own vision.
He added: “We were incredibly impressed with how she kept everything in line with our tone of voice, so much so that we would even consider using elements of her work on other marketing campaigns. Her vision could even be applicable to a wider demographic.”
Graham Robertson Trust joint chair Stephen Chandler added: “It was a magical, mature campaign that the judging panel all felt could win a professional industry award – this is how highly we value her work. We took a range of things into account, including: how well students communicated their campaign, their fulfilment of the brief and the creativity and quality of ideas. Joy ticked all those boxes and her approach was something we had not seen before, redefining the category in terms of exploring new creative territory.”
Edinburgh College managed a clean sweep of the awards, with Blanca Jimenez’s ‘Two Audiences’ and Natasha Ryan’s ‘Buddy the Black Box’ both winning silver this year – the first time a joint second place has been awarded – due to the exceptional standards of both entrees.