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'Soon' was chosen as the best of the 52 entries submitted to the Smart ForFour pitch, which ran for two weeks in February 2004. The idea was created by an agency that had previously been invited to respond to the client's own pitch; the client turned to OpenAd.net when that pitch failed to deliver ideas of sufficient quality. Not only was the winning idea developed and later used for the relaunch of the Smart ForFour model; it was voted best print ad in Slovenia and led to the agency acquiring the Smart ForFour account for future campaigns.

Amanda Wallace and John Paul Li won the GBP 4,000 top prize for their contribution to the Tammy Spring Fashion pitch organised by British fashion retailer Etam, becoming the first UK-based creative team to win a pitch competition on OpenAd.net. Etam were impressed with the quality and professionalism of all the ideas submitted, and added that there were three other strong contenders for the top prize, which made their decision a tough but happy one.

The well-known online retailer chose Alan and Sandy Cinnamond's pitch idea and has developed it as part of their Christmas campaign. The winners received a cash prize of EUR 1,000.

Competition was incredibly tight, with 30 ideas being entered in just six days from the UK, India, South America and Central Europe. This was the tightest deadline and the shortest lead time of all the pitches so far posted on OpenAd.net, and lastminute.com were impressed by the speed and quality of response.

FHM, the international men's magazine, chose the UK-based creative team of Amanda Wallace and John Paul Li as winners of their pitch competition. Wallace and Li's PR stunt idea, 'Judas Kiss', was selected to promote FHM's newly crowned 'High Street Honey', and was staged on 12 February 2005.

FHM were delighted with the publicity generated by the stunt and looked forward to working with OpenAd.net again in the future.

Mercedes-Benz's third pitch on OpenAd.net was won by Jithin Vennengotte Jayaprasad from India. The winning print ad idea, 'Feature-packed E Class', was part of the ad campaign for the launch of the E-Class Exclusive in Slovenia.

Mercedes-Benz are regular and successful users of OpenPitch. Its pitch for the A-Class model was won by Frane Gorjanc with his radio ad, 'Mercedes A Cheaper', which featured as part of special promotions for the A-Class in Slovenia.

The winning strategy was submitted by Avinash Sampath, senior creative at Saatchi & Saatchi (Dubai), who beat off competition from two other agencies. FHM have bought the idea and plan to use it in press, online, radio and TV campaigns, and through Emap's internal network. This was the third FHM pitch to take place on OpenAd.net.

The brief asked for concepts that showed 18-25 year olds that they could realise their dreams in an unexpected and much quicker way by playing the National Lottery. First prize and GBP 1,000 went to David Dearlove and Paul Rizzello, an art director and copywriter team from London-based recruitment advertising agency ThirtyThree. Their campaign, entitled 'Get Rich Quicker', tapped into the mindset of the target audience by focusing on the idea that waiting sucks.

The industry experts judging the ideas included Trevor Beattie of Beattie McGuinness Bungay; Dianne Thompson, chief executive of National Lottery operator Camelot; Polly Cochrane, marketing director of Channel 4; Greg Delaney, chairman of Delaney, Lund, Knox Warren & Partners; Peter Lewis, head of marketing at the Financial Times; Tim Ashton, creative director of Antidote; and Ford Ennals, chief executive of SwitchCo.

Dianne Thompson: 'This was a challenging brief. The problem of attracting 18-25 year olds to play a lotto game is universal. I was extremely impressed by the calibre of the work submitted and think that the winner showed outstanding creativity.'

This brief was the first in the 'World's Toughest Briefs' series, organised in association with the Financial Times. The number and quality of entries clearly demonstrated how keenly it engaged the imagination of OpenAd.net's creatives.

First prize went to Gavin Gordon-Rodgers and Gemma Butler, a senior creative team from Agency Republic in London. Entrants were asked to produce ideas for a virtual G8 demonstration. The winning entry, entitled 'The Future's in Your Hands', was widely commended for its originality, brilliance of execution and truly international character.

'It's been an excellent experiment and I think we have some stuff that could really swing some people's minds. And every mind changed might just be a life saved. Huge thanks to everyone judging, everyone at Open Ad and at the FT' (Richard Curtis – writer, director, Make Poverty History supporter and vice-chair of Comic Relief).

Neogen, the Romanian information portal, were looking for ideas to increase their brand awareness. The first prize of USD 415 was won by Ariel Molina, a creative working in Cordoba, Argentina. Thrilled by the whole OpenAd.net experience, Neogen licensed the idea for use in their advertising campaigns, and plan to use OpenAd.net again to explore ideas for future marketing strategies.

Ariel also won the 'Gloss and Shimmer' pitch in 2004. He is delighted that OpenAd.net have once again recognised his talent, and wonders how many other creatives working in underacknowledged markets and small towns across the world might benefit from submitting their ideas to OpenAd.net.

Joakim Jonason of Made London, the two-time Cannes Grand Prix winner known throughout the world for his work with Diesel, has submitted several campaigns to OpenAd.net.