Student claims gold for branding concept
28 October 2009
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BU student James Hickman has been named the UKs most promising young talent for branding and advertising. |
James, 21, received the Gold Young Talent Award as part of the Account Planning Group (APG) Creative Strategy Awards, held in London.
The Account Planning Group is the world’s leading authority in brand and communication planning, with the awards recognising outstanding strategic planning in all facets of advertising.
The Young Talent Award encourages 16 to 22-year-olds to design an original brand that will appeal to their peer group and submit a proposal based on genuine market need. The competition is open to anyone studying at colleges or universities from across the UK and Europe, as well as young people connected with the advertising industry.
James, originally from Hampshire, is currently in the final year of his BA (Hons) Advertising with Marketing Communications degree at BU. He beat nine other shortlisted entrants to take the prize – the first year the Young Talent accolade has featured in the Awards.
His winning entry, Nocauda (“no coward”), is a clothing brand with an anti-knife crime message. He wished to “create a clear standpoint for young adults against carrying knives” by designing a range of high-fashion apparel, including jeans, hoodies, beanies and baseball caps, that feature the Nocauda logo.
“Young people want to show their support to various causes but charity products are often seen as low quality, cheap and standardized,” James explained. “Nocauda is the opposite. By not being overly attention-grabbing like previous anti-knife clothing, the brand doesn’t isolate the not-so-gregarious, yet its style appeals to trend-setters. The brand aims to snowball by word of mouth, while the Nocauda symbol is instantly recognisable without ‘screaming’ out.”
James’s proposal was described as “particularly impressing the judges with his insights into the target audience and his use of complex behaviour change models”. It has since featured in the APG Awards edition of Campaign, the advertising industry’s leading trade journal.
Speaking after the ceremony, James said: “It was great winning the Gold Award – and highly unexpected! The APG Awards is one of the biggest nights in advertising: all the major advertising agencies were represented at the event, including Fallon, Saatchi, McCann and BBH, so I was able to talk with some great people.
“The judging panel was led by Gareth Goodall, head of planning at Fallon, and a job I would love to have one day. I desperately want to become an account planner at a major ad agency when I graduate from BU, so this was a great opportunity to meet people already in that position.”
Cliff Van Wyk, Senior Lecturer in the Media School at BU, commented: "I was delighted to hear the news that James Hickman had been short-listed in the Account Planning Group (APG) Young Talent Award. To have then gone on to secure the Gold Award was remarkable. This achievement is testament to how he approached this task: identifying a relevant issue, and then strategically applying his analytical and creative acumen to developing a solution.
“James won this award in a keenly-contested competition. Not only was this a superb personal performance, but I would also like to think that it is indicative that our curriculum is industry-relevant, contemporary and suitably inspirational to students.”
