Banging The Drum
For UCA Advertising Students

UCA Advertising students are celebrating after earning multiple nominations in The Drum's prestigious Chip Shop Awards.

21 May 2021

UCA Advertising students are celebrating after being nominated in multiple categories for the prestigious Chip Shop Awards, run by leading advertising and marketing website, The Drum.

Dumb Ways to Spread, the clever reworking of the famous train safety campaign, leads the way with five nominations – Best Parody, Best Vandalism of an Existing Advert, Best Use of Honesty, Covid Awareness Ad (ad or experience) and Best Ad Which Should Really Run (That Hasn’t).

For Dumb Ways to Spread, the ad team worked with BA (Hons) Animation students and singer Eloise Kate, to produce an entirely new but equally catchy message aimed at encouraging Covid-safety. Released in late March, the campaign was picked up by the advertising press and has had nearly 110,000 YouTube views so far.

Meanwhile, a Final Major Project creative concept by UCA students Beti Bara and Kyle Gayle advertising a Nike fitness app where music is created to the beat of your heart as you exercise, SYNK, has been nominated for two prizes – Best Leisure and Best Ad from the Future.

Beti explained how they came up with the concept: “Kyle and I were talking about sports brands and their relationship with music, wondering how come it never occurred to the innovative ones, like Nike, to combine music and exercise for the optimal brand experience.” 

“Our lecturer, Mark, really encourages cross-course collaborations and to expand our ideas. He connected us to Jack from UCA’s music programme. We gave him a fairly open brief, so he went on a run the same day so he could think how to turn the sound of exercise into music! It all went like clockwork and the end result could not have been better.”

Beti has also been nominated in the Best Stunt or Experience category for her Burger King “Scrolling Kills” concept, also a Final Major Project. 

 

What makes the nominations all the more impressive is that they have been shortlisted alongside concepts from leading advertising agencies and brands, including Ogilvy.

Mark Brill, Senior Lecturer in Creative Advertising said: “To be nominated for three campaigns in so many categories is a fantastic achievement by the Advertising students. It’s also great to see so many collaborations with other UCA courses such as Animation and Music. It is of enormous credit to our nominees that most of the work was produced during lockdown, entirely online. The student campaigns have been shortlisted alongside concepts from leading advertising agencies and brands. This is a testament to the standard of work produced on the course and the accomplishment by these amazing students.”

So how do our creative ad team feel about the nominations? “It’s the best way to leave uni, with confidence for the next chapter,” said Kyle. Beti added: “All the nominations are overwhelmingly motivational reminders that hard work is always worth it.”

The winners will be announced in a virtual awards ceremony on 18 June. You can read more about the nominees on the Chip Shop Awards website. 

Credits: Dumb Ways to Spread
Creatives: Tarek Badawi, Beti Bara, Bea Galkeviciute, Kyle Gayle, Jelmer Heijligers, Cassia Hodgson, Rayhannah Preston, Payton Procter, Phoebe Robinson, Hannah Rees. Animators: Harvey Auerbach-Dunn, Kieran Firth-Bernard, Jack Hilder, Çise Tuna, Cameron Carr. Vocals: Eloise Kate 

Nike SYNK: Beti Bara and Kyle Gale

Burger King, Scrolling Kills: Beti Bara