1XL, one of the UK’s leading digital advertising partnerships has teamed up with The Creative Shootout, the innovative awards for the creative industry, to launch The Creative Shootout 2018.
Formed by a UK media-first partnership between 30 of the UK’s longest established regional news publishers including Newsquest, the publisher of this website, 1XL is the UK’s largest source of premium digital news media audience, with a unique reach exceeding 26.403m (Comscore January 2017).
The Creative Shootout 2018 is open to agency teams from any marketing discipline across the UK (Advertising, Content, Digital, Experiential, Integrated, Media, PR or other), the winning agency will receive a £250,000 media prize fund from 1XL to help stage their campaign, as well as £30,000 in fees from Charity of the Year, FareShare, the UK’s largest food re-distribution charity.
Responsible for feeding half-a-million people a week, FareShare re-distributes good, surplus food to more than 6,700 frontline charities and community groups.
Entry to the award is open from 25th September – 28th November. To enter, agencies need to give the judges just one minute on why they have the creative clout for FareShare.
The format can be any content; visual, video, showreel, app, audio, written, just a simple email or even a cake – but it must be viewed, read (or digested) in 60 seconds by the judges.
From there, entries are shortlisted to eight finalist teams, who go on to compete in the live head-to-head final at BAFTA in London on 25th January 2018.
In addition to high profile industry, agency and media personalities, the judging line-up also includes TV personality and Founder and Creative Director of The Rabbit Hole Group, Jason Gardiner, and entertainment and talent mogul, Professor Jonathan Shalit OBE.
An advisory council was also set up this year, comprising 40 leading names from across the industry, and was chaired by producer and presenter, Scott Wimsett, who will also host the live final in January.
At the live final, finalists receive the real brief from FareShare at lunchtime, have four hours to work their creative magic in the afternoon, before pitching their ideas back in 10 minutes each to the judges and live audience at BAFTA.
In the evening a 1st, 2nd and 3rd will be crowned at an after party – with the winning team walking off with the trophy, £30,000 in agency fees and the £250,000 media prize fund from 1XL.
Comments Creative Shootout Founder Johnny Pitt said: “The Shootout came from a simple place; namely, that creativity needs to be celebrated and showcased better.
Comments Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, said: “For us, creativity is a major driver in our organisation.
It’s critical we’re creative in our thinking to help drive awareness and engagement of FareShare.
Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest, a founding partner in 1XL, said: “1XL will serve to communicate the winning creative and message to every corner of the UK through 800 trusted local news brands and a digital audience of over 23 million people a month.
A number of prominent supporters including film star Hugh Bonneville have encouraged the UK marketing industry to support the Shootout, the videos of which can be seen at www.creativeshootout.com.