Young Australian teams collect Gold and Silver in the Young Spikes competitions at Spikes Asia

News Corp Australia has announced that two young creative teams representing Australia in the Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity in Singapore last week won Gold and Silver.

Tristan Viney (left), creative director at Eardrum and Rosie Stone (right), copywriter at Loud won Gold in the Young Spikes Digital competition, while Millie Di Maio, digital director and Kaia Webber, business director at Slingshot won Silver in the Media category.

Speaking of their win, Viney said: “Our hands are still shaking. We  are stoked that 23 hours straight of solid work paid off. We are seriously grateful to News Corp Australia for being given the opportunity to come to Singapore to represent Australia.”

Viney and Stone were tasked with showing support to Thai millennials, that every child in Thailand regardless of where they come from, has the right to an education.

Says Viney: “We came up with an idea called Stitched Together.

“We worked off the insight that school uniforms take away the tell-tale signs of difference and class. When we’re wearing the same uniform, we’re all equal. So our idea, in a nutshell, was to create the world’s first 3D printed school shirt sewn together through the power of our petition. Each signature would power our printer, resulting in more of the shirt being stitched and live-streamed to the world.”

Di Maio (below left) and Webber (below right) were thrilled to win Silver in the Young Spikes Media competition amongst so many talented, young people.

Says Di Maio: “It was a tough brief and with only 24 hours to craft a solution, we are extremely proud of the work we presented.”

The media team was tasked with raising awareness for Asia P3 Hub, an NGO dedicated to facilitating multi-sector partnerships to address the impact of poor water, sanitation and hygiene across Asia Pacific. The target audience was senior executives of private corporations.

Says Di Maio: “System 1 thinking tells us that people think less than we think they do and this was the insight that unlocked the strategy for our brief.

“We decided to grab the attention of executives in places where they are emotionally invested, such as the Golfing Green. We created decision disruption by juxtaposing water and sanitation issues with the pristine greens of Laguna National Golf Course, driving home the issues and demonstrating how private corporations could be part of the solution.

Continues Di Maio: “A big thanks to Slingshot and News Corp for allowing us this amazing opportunity. It was an incredible experience going head to head with some of the brightest minds in the industry. To all the young guns, make sure you sign up for Cannes Young Lions next year; you won’t regret it.”

The Young Spikes creatives were two of four teams in Singapore representing Australia after successfully competing in the 2017 Australian Young Lions competition run by News Corp Australia – the official Australian representative of the 2017 International Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia Festivals.

Says Tony Phillips, chief marketing officer, News Corp Australia: “Congratulations to Tristan, Rosie, Millie and Kaia on an outstanding result and doing such a great job in representing Australia.

“With a Silver award also won in Cannes in June, 2017 has been a very successful year for young talent and clearly demonstrates the strength of our creative industry in Australia. Our future is in very good hands.”