Freelance team Tuvia Bloom and Stephanie Barr win MADC’s 2012 Creative Raw competition

Freelance junior team Tuvia Bloom (right) and Stephanie Barr (left) won this year’s MADC Creative Raw competition, hosted at The Age on Friday.

The judging panel, headed by Grant Rutherford, awarded the pair first place, narrowly ahead of Kate Pattison and Tom Nijam, with Connor Byrt and Jess Gunn third.

The mystery client was JB Hi-Fi NOW, a music subscription service that allows members to stream unlimited music via their computer, mobile phone or tablet device.

The competition challenges junior teams with fewer than three years’ experience working in the industry to respond to the brief in just seven hours. They have one minute to present their idea, which must be primarily focused on using The Age newspaper. This year’s competition was heavily over-subscribed, with the places for 21 teams gone within minutes of the call for entries.

The winning work is then published in The Age, and, for the first time, has the potential to be carried across Fairfax’s digital assets. Co-sponsor Visual Jazz Isobar has offered to help with any digital production necessary.

Says David Hoath, Fairfax Media’s Chief Operating Officer for Metro News: “We were really pleased at the interest and popularity of this year’s Creative Raw challenge.”

The challenge is the brainchild of Hoath, who has seen it go from strength to strength over the past seven years.

Says Hoath: “We’ve had gourmet cheeses and cars and tea as previous clients. Having JB Hi-Fi this year is a great one to inspire this young group – it’s the sort of product that’s right up their alley.”

MADC committee member Nick Condon from DDB thanked the Melbourne creative community who supported the event, including Rutherford and mentors for the day: Fergus Donaldson from Ogilvy, Richard Muntz from JWT, Natasha Wood and Matt Stoddard from McCann, and Paul Hastings.

The work will be produced and published in line with the client’s marketing strategy.