Muirhoward Pair Steal Young Creative Crown

Julia Earthrowl and Poulami Chakraborty have won the wanted ads Young Team of the Year, the NS competition, which saw teams of young creatives work on a local media campaign for Mars.

The Muirhoward pair’s work was judged to be the best by a panel of industry experts chaired by Stef Jones, co-founder, Big Al’s and including Tiger Savage, founder and chief executive, Tigers Eye; and Joe De Souza, creative director, Karmarama.

Stef said: “It was great to see all the teams working so hard on a brief which allowed plenty of scope for the national client to harness the power of local media.

“The competition is a great way to get young creative talent thinking about how local media can add real value to the overall media mix.”

The winners and runners up Ed Redgrave and David Wigglesworth, of St Luke’s, will now go on to compete in the pan European contest Best YET which will be held in Croatia over 12 and 13 May.

Julia and Poulami’s campaign involved handing out footballs with GPS chips which people could use for a kickabout and then pass to their neighbours, with the football’s journey through the community being tracked by the chip.

Art director Julia, who went on to win Best YET after finishing as a runner up in last year's competition, said: “It was a great brief to work on and quite different to last year. We thought about how people play football in their back garden and how this could lead to interaction with neighbours.”

Twenty one teams took part in the NS competition which started with a brief for Mars’ Just Play campaign from Gemma Hamilton, planner, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. 

The campaign aims to get people participating in football sessions run by the confectionery giant in locations across Britain.

Gemma said: “It’s great to have young creative talent working on a brief and it has definitely raised some interesting perspectives which we will take back to the agency and discuss.

“Local media is about being able to have a conversation with people on a more intimate level and people crave community at a local level. It’s about getting close to people as a brand.”

The competition was held at the London Art House last Friday.