The concept is simple. Bring together creative individuals to crack a brief together in just 2 hours. And then pitch your idea to a panel of judges.
40 young creatives ranging from photographers, copywriters, art directors, graphic designers and a mix of first, second and third year students were paired off into eight groups of five. These teams were then head up by a member of the YCC and someone from the client's side. With people from Innocent, Universal, Urban Outfitters, Sainsbury's, Art Against Knives, YH World, Image Source and HelloYouCreatives offering up their services.
The brief was an open one. But with a clear goal in mind. It was set by Do The Green Thing - an organisation that wants to do interesting things that will make a difference to the environment, but in a non-preachy way. It wanted people to eat less meat. Not condone them for eating it or force them to stop altogether, just consume less.
My team, which was made up of Lauren, Steve, Dan, Callum, Rachel, Turlough and myself spent the first hour throwing plenty of thoughts about. Our group was the perfect mix of veggies and meat eaters, so we got lots of different perspectives on how each other perceives eating, buying and consuming meat.
With 30 minutes left, we settled on the best route and set about fine tuning it.
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Our idea:
Problem
Persuading people to eat less meat.
Idea
Meat a Veg. A dating website that pairs up single veggies with single meat eaters.
What's in it for the meat eaters?
- The chance to increase their menu choices
- Free food... because the veggies will show off how to cook better meals
- Possible naked time
What's in it for the veggies?
- Vegucation, vegucation, vegucation. The chance to educate a meat eater about the alternatives to meat.
- They're making people eat less meat (answering the brief)
- Possible naked time
How do we do this?
Using the Do The Green Thing website, Twitter and Facebook, we create the "Meat Market". And encourage meaties to browse the profiles of the veggies in their area. You can also add great vegetarian restaurants to the personalised Google Maps page using a Twitter hashtag and geotagging.
How would this solve the problem?
The veggies would cook meals for the meat eaters, which would usually involve them not cooking any meat at the same time. This reduces the consumption of meat but we're not actually applying any pressure on them. This is done by the other half.
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Our idea was then give a five minute slot to pitch to the panel of judges. Given the fact everyone had only two hours to brainstorm and present, the calibre of work was pretty high. Plus, nearly all had less than a two years experience in the industry.
The judges deliberated and eventually chose our 'Meat a Veg' and another team's 'Give veg a chance' routes as their favourites. Go team! What happens next is up to Do The Green Thing and we'll keep our fingers crossed veggie dating becomes a reality.
Overall though, the YCC did a great job organising a fantastic event. A great client, great judges, free beer, an awesome goodie bag and a great mix of inspiring minds. All I can say is the next one will be something everyone should apply for.
Pictures from @YCCLondon