In battle for creative crown, young stars stretch their brains

The Advertising Practitioners’ Association (APA), Kenya’s umbrella body of creative agencies, hosted the first ever Young Creatives’ Hackathon  last weekend, which brought together 25 creatives aged 21-30 years to crack a brief on the Tusker Lager brand.

The brief was to “Re-ignite Tusker as a modern icon of national pride”. The teams, which paired creatives from agencies, corporate and freelancers, had less than 48 hours to crack the brief. The venue was Nairobi Garage, a co-working space.

The teams received coaching and development support from mentors, who are the top creative leads in Kenya: Max Ngari, Emuron Alemu, Jason Bruckner and Sam Kihanya.

Twenty-two of the 25 teams managed to crack the brief and had three  minutes to present the pitch to the panel of judges that included Max Ngari, Emuron Alemu, Jason Bruckner, Joe Njeru and Vicent Llopis, led by EABL’s Head of Media Futures and Digital, Waithera Kabiru, as the chief judge.

Teams whose ideas were relevant and unique were shortlisted. The top three teams further demonstrated that their ideas not only addressed Tusker Lager’s needs today but were future-proofed.

According to the results  Team “ Koko Iko” of Stephen Kiprono and Mutwiri Njagi emerged best, followed by Team “Please Find Attached” of Angela Njagi and Nevile Hawala in second position and Team “Spirit” led by Josephone Ng’ang’a and Martin Sasia in third position.

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“Koko Iko” won an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas, USA to attend the Creative LIAsions this October.  The Creative LIAisons is a programme fully-funded by LIA for young creatives, that provides them with expertise, insight, new professional networking opportunities, and the chance to observe judging in the judging rooms all the way through to metal discussions.

London International Awards (LIA) is a global festival that was created for creatives. The three winning teams will have the opportunity to present their ideas to the EABL Marketing Leadership Team and explore further engagement.

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