Students ‘Rise Up’ to win Denstu industry challenge

They worked with two huge clients to create a marketing campaign.

Creative & Digital Media students at The Manchester College have won a marketing and media challenge set by international PR company Dentsu International. 

The ‘Rise Up’ challenge saw the students work with two of Dentsu’s biggest clients; Co-op and Mondelez, the company that owns Cadbury.

Over 300 students across the UK took part in the competition, including students on the College’s Level 2 Creative Digital Media Production and Design course.

Their brief was to create an advertising, marketing and media campaign to show how Co-op and Cadbury can come together to inspire generosity and co-operation to showcase a little more goodness in local communities, focusing on fairer access to food and reducing food waste.

After researching and creating their ideas, students presented them to three top industry judges:

• James Morris – CEO Creative, EMEA & UK, Dentsu
• Clive C Jones – Northern Europe President, Mondelez
• Amanda Jennings – Director of Marketing, Co-op.

Of the 300 students that took part, only 30 made it to the final, which included 14 students from The Manchester College! And there was more success to come. 

Our students Victoria Taylor and Luke Gray were named the Overall Winners in the Best Campaign category, for their ‘Tub & Ware’ campaign (pictured) aimed at encouraging children to reduce food waste.

Furthermore, students Fardin Ali, Emmanuel Nwabudike and Zhi Yeng Chen were Highly Commended in the Creative Idea category for their ‘Merry Wastemass’ app design. 

Speaking about their win, Luke said: “When we were announced as the overall winner, I freaked out in utter disbelief. I was so happy, I didn’t expect us to win.

I really enjoyed the competition. In terms of communication, co-operation and teamwork, it exceeded my expectation.

Highly Commended Fardin added: “The final results day was very exciting. We were in class enjoying the presentations and feedback. I’m really glad that we were successful as it presents us with a very good opportunity to work with Dentsu that will look great on our CVs.”

All Rise Up finalists and students with highly commended entries will be invited to take part in work experience with Dentsu, where they will have the opportunity to shadow real client meetings and meet the Dentsu team. 

You can find out more about our Industry Excellence Academy for Creative & Digital Media, find the course for you and apply today.

From September 2022, Creative & Digital courses will be taught at our brand new, state-of-the-art City Campus Manchester.