Health and Wellbeing

The NDC Milk It Advertising Awards!

In September 2010, the National Dairy Council launched the inaugural NDC Milk It Advertising Awards to support the extension of the EU-subsidised School Milk Scheme to secondary schools and to encourage teenagers to meet their recommended dairy intake. Schools that participate in the School Milk Scheme provide students with the opportunity to get one of their recommended portions of dairy each day in a very cost effective
way! For more information, see www.schoolmilk.ie

The IUNA National Teens Survey revealed that 42% of Irish teenage girls and 23% of Irish teenage boys have insufficient calcium intakes. Dairy is an important source of calcium in the diet and the NDC Milk It Advertising Awards offered a fun way of communicating this message to teenagers. The competition provided students with an opportunity to get some first hand experience of the advertising industry and the roles involved in activating a campaign. This unique competition gave students a chance to develop many skills while touching on junior and senior cycle subjects such as Home Economics, Business Studies, English and Art.

 

The Competition

Students took on the challenge of forming an advertising agency and putting together a plan of action to promote dairy consumption to their target market - their peers. Teams gathered information by conducting surveys and questionnaires within their schools to find out what their target market’s opinions on dairy were. Many of the campaigns suggested novel ways of achieving the recommended five servings of dairy a day and a major recurring theme was the importance of calcium for bone health. A total of 325 teams from across the country submitted initial entries. Once the entries were received, 100 teams were selected to activate their campaigns in their schools and locality. Teams had from January to mid-February to carry out their campaigns, with many holding events in their schools such as milk/calcium days, flash mobs and dairy sampling. Teams then submitted their reports which included any media used such as radio or television advertisements, posters and photographs of their campaign. The judging panel then had the difficult task of narrowing the 100 teams down to twelve finalist teams. These teams were then invited to pitch their campaign to the judging panel on 12th April – the NDC Milk It Advertising Awards Final.

 

The Grand Final

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was the venue for the day, with the twelve teams arriving bright and early to set up their stands and
put the finishing touches to their presentations. As the judges made their way around the exhibition hall, each of the twelve teams pitched their campaign highlighting its objectives and demonstrating how their advertising strategy would capture the target market. After their pitches, the finalists had an opportunity to demonstrate their campaigns to guest of honour Derval
O’Rourke, MC Mairead Farrell and NDC guests. Tribal drummers ‘Extreme Rhythm’ entertained guests as tension
mounted while teams eagerly awaited the final result.

And the winners are…

The awards ceremony took place during lunch with three titles up for grabs. All twelve teams were presented with certificates by Derval O’Rourke, NDC CEO Zoë Kavanagh and NDC Chairman Dominic Cronin. The winners of the junior category were “M.C.Y.B. Advertising Agency” 2nd year students from Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Co. Kerry. Their campaign, “Yo Yo Yogurt”, focused exclusively on yogurt and spread their message through rap and yoyo demonstrations. The team even
made their own yogurt for the judges to sample! “The Udder Option”, 5th year students from Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Co. Dublin walked away with both the “Senior Category” and “Overall Winner” titles. They were each presented
with an Apple iPad, a plaque and the NDC Milk It trophy, as well as a €100 One4all voucher each. Their campaign, “Fall in Love with Milk”, focused on the reinvention of milk packaging to make it more colourful and appealing to young people and featured an engaging and creative TV advertisement. Another goal of the team was to encourage their peers to drink more milk by making it available in the school canteen and highlighting the nutritional benefits of milk and other dairy options. They created a facebook page which included facts about the importance of dairy in a simple, but effective, manner.

On to the next!

With the success of this year’s competition, there are high expectations of what talent next years teams will bring
to the table. Some of this years finalists have even started planning their campaign for next year already! With feedback received from both students and teachers – next years competition promises to be even bigger and better!

 

Judges and winners of the NDC Milk It Awards:

Head Judge:
• Brian Swords, President of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland

JUNIOR CATEGORY JUDGES
• Professor Andrea Prothero, UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business
• Claire Nardone, ZenithOptimedia
• Dr. Catherine Logan, NDC Nutrition Manager

SENIOR CATEGORY JUDGES
• Richard Curran, Presenter of Dragons’ Den & Deputy Editor of the Sunday Business Post
• Michael O'Leary, National Co-ordinator of the Transition Year Programme
• Paula Mee, Independent Dietician & Television Personality

Junior Category Winners:
Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Rathmore, Co. Kerry
• Ian O’Riordan
• Laura Hogan
• Roisin Heuston
• Alex Wright
• Grace Nagle

Senior Category & Overall Winners:
Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Clontarf, Co.Dublin
• Lorna Keating
• Timothy Carley
• Nora Dunne
• Tom Lee

 

Did You Know?

It is not only primary schools that can avail of the School Milk Programme, Secondary Schools can too! As the scheme is subsidised by the EU, it gives students the chance to getone of their recommended servings of dairy at an affordable price! For more information log onto www.schoolmilk.ie

 

Nutri-Myth of the Month

Myth: Three servings of dairy each day is recommended for everyone!
Fact: The Department of Health and Children recommend that adults and children consume three servings of dairy a day. However, due to increased calcium requirements, they recommend that teenagers consume five. All that growing bone has to get its calcium from somewhere!

 

If you have any suggestions or ideas, we would be delighted to hear from you via email at feelinggood@ndc.ie or write to us at The National Dairy Council, Innovation House, 3 Arkle Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18.

Don't miss our June feature ' School is Out!'- available online from Monday 20th June, 2011.

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