PITCH PERFECT
Pitch Perfect is an exciting marketing competition which gives further and higher education students the opportunity to create and design their very own challenging sectarianism awareness campaign.
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Pitch Perfect is an exciting marketing competition which gives further and higher education students the opportunity to create and design their very own challenging sectarianism awareness campaign.
The students involved can opt to use cutting edge technologies or more traditional methods of advertising but ultimately, they must produce a campaign which stimulates and generates interest in Nil by Mouth and which raises awareness of the issue. In addition, students get the chance to spend a real budget, plan a campaign and gain invaluable experience pitching to an independent panel of experts.
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The competition has been successfully run at Ayrshire College, Glasgow Kelvin College, South Lanarkshire College and has been delivered consecutively since 2014 at The City of Glasgow College with more than 100 students from their Marketing, Advertising & PR Course taking part each year, in an effort to secure their SQA Higher National Unit in Advertising: Researching and Planning a Local Campaign. All participants compete with the aim of winning and securing their chance to run a multi-media awareness campaign for Nil by Mouth.
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The process involves an initial presentation and briefing from Nil by Mouth’s Campaign Director. The students are then split into groups to come up with their campaign and subsequently put through their paces during an intensive semi-final process which takes place in the college. Five teams are selected to go forward to the final which is held at an external venue. At this stage the groups must present their perfected pitch to an experienced panel of judges drawn from the worlds of marketing,PR and journalism, all while being filmed by a camera crew.
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Previous winning ideas include ‘Kiss Bigotry Goodbye’ which saw hundreds of football fans come together to challenge negative perceptions of the sport. ‘Sectarianism is a Turn Off’ – the creators drew on the experiences of friends and classmates to discover how the use of sectarian language or posting sectarian content online impacted on a potential love match. ‘It’s not in Your Blood’ was an imaginative campaign with a powerful visual image which sought to remind people that regardless of colour or creed the same blood flows through all our veins. ‘Neeps and Tatties’ - the winning group used the story of the ‘Haggis’ character from the children’s book ‘Neeps and Tatties’ to examine issues such as discrimination and prejudice and to highlight how old grievance can be overcome by a new generation.
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Students and lecturers have displayed huge amounts of imagination and commitment, members of the public have taken part in the various campaigns and support from both the Scottish Parliament and Government has highlighted the quality and creativity of all involved. Students have seen their campaigns nominated for awards such as The Heralds, Higher Education Awards – Best Campaign Category and Glasgow City Colleges - Embracing Diversity Competition. Previous campaigns have been recognised at the Scottish Parliament with MSPs from across the political spectrum signing a
motion of praise and all campaigns have received significant coverage in the media.
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Testimonial
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‘The opportunities and benefits given to students through their involvement with the ‘pitch perfect’ competition are extensive. The project supports industry engagement and learning through high profile industry speakers and judges that work with the students over a 6-month period. Students gain insight into real world industry-life and are enabled to create their own agency and marketing campaign. Students develop skills in research, creative concept and presenting, all integral to their employability in the work world. This project builds students understanding of their chosen career but perhaps more importantly builds their confidence in their own abilities. The students leave the project feeling motivated, confident, and secure in their education/career choice.’
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Curriculum Head, Marketing, Advertising & PR, The City of Glasgow College.
For further information please contact Emma Alexander, Engagement Officer, engagement@nilbymouth.org