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NDC Milk It Secondary School Advertising Awards Launched

The National Dairy Council will support and organise the NDC Milk it Secondary School Advertising Awards again, following the success of the inaugural awards programme in the last school year.

Secondary school students throughout the Republic of Ireland are invited to experience the creativity, challenges and thrills of working in their own ‘advertising agency’; taking on roles such as Creative Directors, Designers, Copywriters, Research Directors, Media Directors and Project Managers.

Students who register now for the project will be given a brief and guidelines to help them research, design and plan an advertising campaign aimed at their own teenage peers and encouraging teenagers to meet their nutritional dietary recommended levels of 5 dairy portions a day.

The NDC Milk it Award programme received widespread support in its inaugural year. Developed in consultation with teachers, it offers secondary schools a project with cross-curricular linkage potential, of relevance to subjects such as Business, English, Home Economics and Art. It is also an ideal Transition Year or CSPE project.

Speaking at the launch of the NDC Milk it Secondary School Advertising Awards, Brian Swords, President of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) said that popularity of the project already has shown that it is fun for the students who take part and that it is an engaging way to get a real flavour for the creative, analytical and organisational skills involved in developing and implementing an advertising campaign.

Zoë Kavanagh, Chief Executive of The National Dairy Council said she would like to encourage secondary school students to really think about taking part. "We could see in the first year of the NDC Milk it Awards that participating can benefit students hugely at a personal level, helping you to learn and develop really useful lifeskills that will stand to you in the future," said Ms. Kavanagh.

"There was a great buzz at the inaugural national finals for the previous awards, which was terrific. But it was clear from talking with the students that participating at any level in this type of project is a great experience in sportsmanship and perseverance as well as helping to build personal confidence and responsibility," said Ms. Kavanagh.

“From the NDC’s perspective, national surveys show that a significant number of teenagers are not getting enough calcium as part of their diets. Teenagers are going through a particularly important phase in bone growth, with about 90% of peak bone mass laid down by the late teens. Calcium is needed for the normal growth and development of bone in children and for the maintenance of normal bones, so it is worrying to see that 42% of Irish teenage girls and 23% of Irish teenage boys in the 13-17 year age category have inadequate calcium intakes.”

“The NDC Milk it Secondary School Advertising Awards provide a way of engaging with secondary school students and their teachers in a fun way whilst helping to build awareness of the importance of dairy dietary guidelines,” said Ms. Kavanagh. The School Milk & Dairy Programme is also now open to both primary and secondary schools, with participating schools in a position to encourage healthier snacking habits and to get back to the basics of the Food Pyramid with more regularly balanced diets.

How to Enter

Schools and students must first register (by visiting www.milkitawards.ie or phoning 01-522 4835 or e-mailing info@milkitawards.ie).

Then in the first phase students are given guidelines about undertaking some research based on the brief provided and to learn about their target market, the product and media. They are encouraged to brainstorm and to develop their messages and creative ideas into a plan of action for an advertising campaign. Their plans must be entered no later than 30th November, 2011.

In the second phase, the student ‘advertising agencies’ who are successfully short-listed will be invited to activate parts of their campaign and provide a report by 24th February 2012. In the final phase, finalist ‘agencies’ will be chosen to ‘pitch’ their campaigns to the judges at the national finals of the NDC Milk it Secondary School Advertising Awards in Dublin, to take place in late April 2012.

Prize Fund

The NDC Milk it Awards will be judged in Junior Categories (1st-3rd Year) and Senior Categories (4th/Transition Year - 6th Year) and has a prize fund of €5,400.

A gift voucher valued at €250 will be presented to each individual member of the top team in the Junior Category and the top team in the Senior Category. One of these teams will be selected as the overall winner, who may have the option of seeing their campaign adapted or used in a real advertisement.

There will also be prizes of gift vouchers valued at €100 for each individual team member in the Junior and Senior runner up team and on the teams to win category awards for 'Best Nutrition Campaign' and 'Best Innovation'.

Judge’s Confirmed

The judges for the NDC Milk it Awards are: Brian Swords, President of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland; Richard Curran, presenter of Dragons’ Den & Deputy Editor of the Sunday Business Post; Claire Nardonne, ZenithOptimedia; Dietitian Paula Mee; Michael O'Leary, National Co-ordinator, Transition Year Programme and Professor Andrea Prothero of UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business, with support also from Dr. Catherine Logan, Nutrition Manager, NDC.

Previous Winners

A team of four secondary school students from Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Clontarf, Dublin 3 were the overall winners of the first NDC Milk it Secondary School Advertising Awards presented in April 2011. The student team, calling themselves "The Udder Option" were 5th year students at the time: Lorna Keating, Timothy Carley, Nora Dunne and Tom Lee. The campaign they submitted for the competition was called “Fall in Love with Milk” and also won the Senior Category in the competition. Further details about previous winners and finalists are available at www.milkitawards.ie .

Sources of information

• Food Pyramid recommendations - Health Promotion Unit, Dept of Health and Children (pdf http://www.healthpromotion.ie/uploads/docs/HPM00463.pdf ) & Food Safety Authority of Ireland
• IUNA, Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance, National Teen’s Food Survey 2008
• TNS mrbi research (April 2008)

 

For further information about the NDC, return to our Home Page

 

Media Enquiries to:

Antonina Ni Dhuinn, Progress Communications | 01-276 6117 | nina[at]progresspr[dot]ie | www.progresspr.ie

 

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