Ogilvy and MILO announce 2025 Advertising Capstone Challenge winners – AUT’s ‘Nunchucks’
Industry partners Ogilvy and the team behind MILO have today announced the winners of the 2025 Advertising Capstone Challenge (ACC), with a team called ‘Nunchucks’ from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) taking line honours.
As a result of the win, the four-person team has been awarded sought-after mentorships with Ogilvy – which was named ACC Industry Partner along with the MILO team in June – shadowing leaders across various departments. ‘Stir Creative’ from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) was also recognised for its high-quality efforts, receiving the Highly Commended award.
Now in its 10th year, the ACC is designed to help bridge the gap between academic learning and professional practice, ensuring students have a competitive edge upon graduation. The program equips the next generation of talent with practical experience, industry connections and the skills necessary to thrive in their future careers, offering a unique opportunity to final year advertising and marketing students from across Australia and New Zealand.
Ogilvy and the MILO team believe in nurturing future creative talent, so for this year’s 10th anniversary challenge, participants were tasked with solving real business problems presented by the MILO team. Students from across five universities were given a real-world brief, challenging them to connect with Gen Z audiences and build awareness and positive associations with the brand.
In response, 200 students working in teams from five universities then developed full-service campaigns, spanning strategy, creative, media and evaluation. Nine shortlisted teams presented their campaign ideas to a panel of judges from Ogilvy and the MILO team before this year’s Capstone Challenge winner ‘Nunchucks’ was decided.
Damien Pashby, Client Partner, Ogilvy Sydney, said of the campaigns developed as part of the annual competition: “What an incredible display of emerging talent working on the MILO brand challenge. The energy, creativity, and consumer understanding the participants demonstrated was truly impressive. I’m delighted that Ogilvy could be part of this journey and have no doubt these students will have long and successful careers ahead.”
Eva Tran, MILO Marketing Manager, adds: “At MILO, we believe in inspiring the next generation and supporting the Capstone Challenge is just one way we do that. Our team were blown away by the potential, possibilities and emerging talent coming from the advertising students.”
Says Dan Fastnedge, AUT Lecturer: “Getting the chance to collaborate with an iconic brand and leading agency was an amazing experience. It’s always rewarding to see students take what they’ve learned and apply it so confidently to a real-world brief — and to see that hard work recognised with a win.”
Since launching in 2016, more than 1200 students in 240 teams have participated in the ACC, with more than 40 industry internships offered to winners from among 230 Australasian finalists. Students involved in this year’s ACC hailed from Swinburne University of Technology, Western Sydney University, University of the Sunshine Coast, Auckland University of Technology and Curtin University.
Members of the awarded teams are as follows:
Nunchucks: (Winners)
Unique Florence Viernes
Jay Readings
Olive Cato
Bella-Lucia Griffin
Stir Creative: (Highly Commended)
Jade Fulton
Jessica Albinsson
Meg Jones
Zoe Wilkie
Pictured back L-R: Damien Pashby (Ogilvy), Bella-Lucia Griffin (Nunchucks), Olive Cato (Nunchucks), Unique Florence Viernes (Nunchucks), Jay Readings (Nunchucks), Blake Arthur (Ogilvy), Andrew Hankin (Ogilvy). Front L-R: Joanna Page (AUT), Dan Fastnedge (AUT)
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