Since March 2005, OpenAd.net and FT Creative Business have been running a series of briefs that give creatives a chance to tackle some of the most challenging topics in the advertising world. With students, freelancers, established creative directors and agencies competing on equal terms alongside each other, the World's Toughest Briefs are a perfect expression of OpenAd.net's belief in creative freedom beyond the constraints of reputation, hierarchy and office politics.
Each of the briefs were carefully chosen to present the stiffest challenge possible. Their mix of topical content and resistant and reluctant target markets has helped to attract huge interest from creatives from around the world, as well as a good deal of press attention. The calibre of the judges has also contributed to the success of the series; the chance to have their work scrutinised by a panel of judges made up of some of the most prominent figures in the UK advertising and marketing world has been something creatives have been unable to resist.
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The Creative Business section is about provoking debate and discussion within the creative industries. What better way to get people talking than to ask them for their ideas in meeting what will be some of the world’s most challenging advertising briefs?
(Gautam Malkani, editor of FT Creative Business)
This is a great opportunity for us to encourage the free-thinking, creative approach which underlies the OpenAd philosophy. The competition enables the best creative brains to provide solutions to the hardest advertising briefs, whilst gaining exposure amongst a savvy, commercially-minded audience.
(Katarina Skoberne, co-founder of OpenAd.net)
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You don't have to be an established creative director to enter. The briefs are open to everyone, and that includes freelance creatives and students, as well as those with an interest in advertising and a conviction that they have what it takes to crack a tough brief. Entries are judged by a select panel made up of some of the biggest names in UK advertising and marketing. They have included Trevor Beattie of Beattie McGuinness Bungay, Peter Souter (creative director of BBDO Worldwide), Dianne Thompson (CEO of 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 (CEO of SwitchCo). The winners are featured in the Creative Business section of the FT and on OpenAd.net.
Brief 7 - Healthy Eating
This month’s ‘World’s Toughest Brief’ was to convince children to persuade their parents to buy more healthy food and to make healthy eating imaginative and fun.
Children are the most powerful advocates on the planet and pester power, according to marketing experts, is on the increase. It is estimated that kids under the age of 12 now influence family purchases in the US to the tune of USD 300bn. We challenged creatives to find a way of harnessing this power, to tap into children’s imagination and empower them to convince their parents that healthy eating would enhance everybody’s wellbeing.
More on this pitch and the winning ideas
Brief 6 – Hybrid Cars
While the winners of last month’s competition found a way of making science fiction appeal to young consumers in the present, the challenge laid down by us in this competition, concerned a technology that has already made the transition from science fiction to reality. This ‘World’s Toughest Brief’ was to convince drivers to trade in their gas-guzzling cars for environmentally-friendly hybrid vehicles that are powered by both petrol and electricity.
The challenge was therefore to broaden the appeal of these cars. Although hybrid cars owners enjoy lower fuel costs and tax incentives in some countries, these are offset by higher upfront costs. The vehicles also suffer from an image problem – consumers associate them with fuel efficiency and low pollution rather than performance indicators such as acceleration, power, reliability and safety. They are also perceived as less macho, with drivers more likely to be female. While the precise levels of fuel economy (as measured by miles per gallon) have been widely debated, entrants were asked to focus on the general principle of opting for guilt-free driving.
More on this pitch and the winning ideas
Brief 5 – Pensions
In common with the National Lottery brief that preceded it, this brief asked creatives to devise an advertising campaign aimed at 18-25 year olds. But where the previous brief stressed the 'get rich quick' aspects of playing the lottery, this one might be described as an attempt to encourage young people to 'get rich slower'. With ageing populations giving rise to talk of a pensions crisis, creatives were asked to come up with ideas that focused not just on the threat of poverty in old age but on the role of pensions as the route to enjoyment and fulfilment in later life.
More on this pitch and the winning ideas
Brief 4 – National Lottery
With the series now in full swing, a bumper crop of entries were submitted in response to this exciting brief. Creatives were tasked with persuading 18-25 year olds, traditionally the most difficult segment of consumers to target, that playing the National Lottery could be the quickest way to realise their dreams and aspirations.
Dianne Thompson, chief executive of UK National Lottery operator Camelot and regular member of the judging panel, was impressed with the calibre of the entries: 'This was a challenging brief. The problem of attracting 18-25 year olds to play a lotto game is universal … The winner showed outstanding creativity.'
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Brief 3 – Digital TV
Over 100 entries were submitted in response to this brief, which asked creatives to produce ideas that would convince people to convert voluntarily to digital television ahead of the UK government's plans to switch off the analogue signal in 2012.
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Brief 2 – Switching Banks
Getting customers to switch banks is, in the words of Polly Cochrane, director of marketing at Channel 4 and a member of the judging panel, 'probably the most well-resourced advertising problem in the world'. The vigorous debate that took place among the judges centred around whether the problem was best approached by stressing the positive benefits of switching banks or by focusing on customers' dissatisfaction with their current bank. This was a very tough brief that stretched the talents of creatives to the limit.
More on this pitch and the winning ideas
Brief 1 – Make Poverty History
This brief asked creatives to produce ideas that would explain this most urgent of world issues and convince people to support the cause, in particular through www.makepovertyhistory.org. Creatives were given the freedom to choose the medium of the message – direct mail, a PR campaign, print advertising, letters, emails, etc.
More on this pitch and the winning ideas
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