Five advertising students from The University of Queensland (UQ) Business School have won the coveted national Advertising Capstone Challenge Australia hosted in Sydney – an annual competition between three major universities crowing the best pitch for a well-known brand.
This year’s competition brief provided by Campaign Brief Agency of the Year, DDB Sydney and their client, McDonald’s Australia was based around sustainability.
UQ Business School lecturer and mentor of the successful team, Dr Nicolas Pontes said the opportunity to pitch to such a renowned agency and well-known client was a valuable stepping stone for the career trajectory of all the participants, and also reflected the outstanding ability of the winning UQ students.
“This win is a powerful endorsement of the calibre of UQ Business School students and the high-quality advertising program that the university currently offers,” said Dr Pontes.
“McDonald’s and the DDB executives provided our students with a really challenging live brief and were extremely generous with their time, attending to all top teams’ presentations in Sydney at the end of the semester,” said Dr Pontes.
The winning UQ Business School students; Delaney Lang-Lemckert, Stephanie Mathers, Zoe Edwards, Jiruo Wang and Lukas Russell have all secured a coveted advertising internship at DDB Sydney or Melbourne, as well as role-specific mentorships from executives at DDB Australia.
“The opportunity to work on a live brief gave us a real experience of what a career in advertising involves,” said Lukas Russell.
“We walk away from this competition with new skills, confidence, friendships and industry connections.”
The annual pitch competition allows students to flex their creative muscles in a real-world setting, and by hosting the challenge, advertising agencies are able to give bright young talent a taste of the workforce.
This industry connected learning competition ensures that the future leaders of advertising are prepared for the complex and evolving business environment.
The Advertising Capstone Challenge inaugural competition in 2016 was won by UQ Business School students, with this year being UQ’s second winning pitch.
With multiple groups of participants from the University of Queensland, Swinburne University of Technology and Western Sydney University, the event was an opportunity for high achieving advertising students to also connect with each other.
“I was impressed with the quality of work presented by all teams, and this initiative will set the talent of tomorrow up for a ground-breaking career in advertising,” said Dr Pontes.
Media: Emma Pryor, (07) 3346 4506, media@business.uq.edu.au
