Creativity and originality abound in this year’s New Zealand Post Student Marketer of the Year awards, which aim to honour excellence in marketing strategy, creativity and innovative thinking in tertiary students.
This year’s award programme gave students the chance to support New Zealand youth development programmes, with entrants asked to create a direct marketing programme for the 'Non-Event of the Year', an annual Foundation for Youth Development (FYD) initiative aimed at raising funds for its current programmes Kiwi Can, Stars and Project K.
To ensure donations were put to best use, the 'Non-Event of the Year' campaign encouraged donors to host the perfect non-event from the comfort of their own home with their own friends, instead of attending an extravagant charity ball or dinner. Student marketers were asked to develop a campaign to raise both the profile and funds for FYD through a marketing campaign that included both internet and direct mail.
The 2010 finalists, which were announced today by New Zealand Post, feature students from just two institutions, AUT and Massey University. The winning campaign will be announced on 26 February 2010 at the RSVP/Nexus Awards and there are a host of prizes on offer. The winning student/s will also get the chance to parade around in front of a room of prospective employers who have presumably had too much wine.
Jo-anne Wilkinson, co-founder and executive director of FYD, says the Non-Event of the Year campaign offers the opportunity to make a real difference with the youth development programmes and help school-age children reach their full potential.
“We wanted to call on the fresh, creative thinking of student marketers to make this a campaign like no other and we’ve been enormously impressed by the standard of this year’s entries," she says.
Fiona Woolley from New Zealand Post’s Targeted Communications team was impressed with the creativity on display in the range of fully integrated, innovative campaigns.
Melissa Brinsden & Reuben Boyes Hannaford, AUT, for How Are You Going To Do Yours?