The industry’s next generation set to work with Bastion Creative and The Cancer Institute NSW for the 2022 Advertising Capstone Challenge

A real-world brief set by Bastion Creative and client The Cancer Institute NSW for this year’s Advertising Capstone Challenge (ACC) will see final year advertising students tackle the growing issue of e-cigarette use among young people.

Students from Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Queensland and Western Sydney University will compete in the 2022 ACC for the opportunity to pitch their campaign solutions to agency and client executives from Bastion Creative and The Cancer Institute NSW in October.

The prestigious competition gives students the opportunity to network and connect with the advertising industry through collaboration and competition by working on a real-world brief with clients and industry partners.

This year’s ACC tasks students with devising a Vaping Behaviour Change Campaign to address the issue of vaping among young people in NSW – an activity that is both harmful to health and that could be a gateway to cigarette smoking.

The goal of the integrated behaviour change campaign is to both prevent uptake among young people and encourage current people who vape to quit.

The target audience is young people aged 14 to 24 in NSW, including those who currently vape and those at risk of future uptake.

Says Ana Lynch, managing partner, Bastion Creative: “We are proud and excited to partner with our client Cancer Institute NSW to support the ACC to help the industry’s next generation of talent gain real-world industry experience. There’s no substitute for them working on a live brief and growing social issue. We’re obviously working on developing this campaign ourselves, so we know the challenge we’ve set them.”

Says John Greig co-chair of the ACC and lecturer at Western Sydney University: “It’s great that we have been able to secure another excellent agency partner in Bastion Creative and their client Cancer Institute NSW. This challenging brief is an extremely important one and one that currently is directly related to our students and their peers. It will be great to see what creative solutions they come up with that will help change behaviours around this important issue.”

The students were briefed on Monday 15 August. Finalists will pitch their campaign solutions on Friday 21 October, with coveted industry internships and mentorships awarded to winning students.

Bastion Creative and The Cancer Institute NSW join a prestigious list of agencies and clients who have supported the ACC, with previous partners including M&C Saatchi and Tourism Australia in 2021, and DDB and McDonald’s in 2019.

More than 700 students have participated in 116 teams since the challenge was established in 2016.

For more information about the ACC, visit: www.advertisingcapstonechallenge.com