Students to become ad executives

A NEW national competition invites secondary school students to experience the challenges of working in an advertising agency; whilst providing teachers with an initiative that has cross-curricular linkage potential.

The National Dairy Council’s Milk It! Awards give students the chance to work in teams, setting up their own advertising agency of up to six students.
Students are encouraged to take on advertising roles such as designers, copywriters, creative directors, research directors, media directors and project managers.
In the first phase of this year’s award programme, students are encouraged to undertake some research based on the brief provided and to learn about their target market, the product and media.
They are encouraged to brainstorm and to develop their messages and creative ideas into a plan of action for an advertising campaign. The plan must be entered no later than November 30.
In the second phase, the student advertising agencies that are successfully short-listed will be invited to activate parts of their campaign and provide a report by mid-February 2011. In the final phase, 12 finalist agencies will be chosen to pitch their campaigns to a panel of expert judges at the national finals of the NDC’s Milk It! Awards in Dublin.
The awards programme was developed in consultation with teachers and can be anchored in or link with a wide range of subjects including English, home economics, business, art, transition year, CSPE and many more.
“When research tells us that a significant proportion of Irish teenagers do not have adequate calcium intake, it’s clear that teenagers as well as children need all the encouragement they can get to switch to healthier snacking habits and to get back to the basics of the food pyramid with more regularly balanced diets,” said Helen Brophy, chief executive of the National Dairy Council. 
“It’s also clear that we, in the NDC, need to explore new and creative ways of engaging with secondary school students and their teachers,” said Ms Brophy. “We hope that offering the School Milk and Dairy programme to secondary school students and building awareness of the important of dairy dietary guidelines through the NDC Milk It! Advertising Awards, will help to combat the nutritional gap which exists amongst many Irish teenagers.”
Students and schools must register for the competition, either using the form in the packs issued to schools this week, or you can register by phoning the Milk It! Awards office at 01 5224835 or info@milkitawards.ie.