Bathurst’s Charles Sturt University’s ‘Kajulu Blue’ team wins IAA Big Idea 2013 national competition

Bathurst’s Charles Sturt University officially harbours the nation’s top young marcomms talent with its “Kajulu Blue” team winning the 2013 International Advertising Association’s (IAA) annual ‘Big Idea’ competition.

In the 11th year of the IAA Big Idea Challenge “Kajulu Blue” beat fellow finalists and Charles

Sturt stable mates “Kajulu Red’, Edith Cowan University’s “Boomerang 2” and the University of the Sunshine Coast’s “Digitall Recall” team in the four-way shoot-out yesterday at M&C Saatchi Sydney.

In the Optus-sponsored program, the teams were asked to come up with a ‘Big Idea’ and a fully-fledged plan to market IAA’s recipient charity Kids Helpline, Australia’s free, private and confidential telephone and online counselling service for young people.

Jaimes Leggett, judge chair and M&C Saatchi Australasia CEO called Kajulu Blue’s winning effort “a powerful, strong, single-minded idea.”

Continues Leggett: “Their solution was a big creative platform that was so much more than advertising. It gave consumers a clear role and mapped out a great user journey for people to donate.”

Leggett added that the quality of all finalists “has been nothing short of humbling. Their talent bodes well for the future of the industry as a whole.”

Says Tracy Adams, Kids Helpline CEO: “I was absolutely blown away by the calibre of the work in general and the extent that all the teams came up with the Big Idea.

“What I saw today was some amazing presentations put together by young people that not

only understood what Kid’s Helpline is about but showed tremendous commitment and passion to the cause.

“Their Big Ideas will be of much benefit to Kids Helpline now and into the future.”

Optus community partnership manager, CSR, Geoffrey Nevill said he was taken aback by the quality of the written entries, but was most impressed by the students’ presentation skills.

Says Nevill: “Their ability to think on their feet and answer hard questions was quite remarkable, and to see today’s younger generation developing marketing solutions for their peers was inspiring.”

IAA Australia chapter president & chair Heather Leembruggen, praised the “outstanding quality of inventive, workable ideas and fine marketing campaigns generated by thoughtful insights from all the entrants. This was a record-breaking challenge in which over 100 students participated from universities in NSW, VIC, QLD and WA.

Says Leembruggen: “It was very gratifying to hear the students tell us first-hand what an exciting learning experience IAA ‘Big Idea’ had been – working for a real-life client with the opportunity to put their classroom learning into real world practice and preparing them for the transition from university into professional practice.”

The IAA Big Idea 2013 judging panel comprised:

• Jaimes Leggett (Chair), CEO M&C Saatchi
• Tracy Adams, CEO Kids Helpline & Boystown
• Geoffrey Nevill, Community Partnership Manager Corporate Social Responsibility, Optus
• Narelle Craig, Managing Director, Bang PR
• Peter Vogel, CEO, MEC
• Elizabeth Minogue, Director of Strategic Integration, MCN (Muti Channel Network).

(Pictured: 1) Members of the winning Charles Sturt University “Kajulu Blue” team, from left:

Kate Scrutton, Mathilde Mould, Elizabeth Stephens, Geoffrey Nevill (Optus), Anne Llewellynn (Course Advisor), Tracy Adams (Kids Helpline) Campbell Walker, Aiden Arentz and Heather Leembruggen (IAA Australia Chapter President & Chair); 2) Kate Scrutton shakes hands with IAA Big Idea Judge Chair, M&C Saatchi CEO Jaimes Leggett; 3) All the IAA Big Challenge finalists and judges)