It’s your time to shine
Are you an aspiring creative ready to shine and make your mark on the industry? We’ve partnered with The Marketing Society for 18 years running to offer the winner of their Aspiring Creative Star Award a paid internship here at Union Direct, where we’ll not only show you what it’s like to work in one of the top award-winning agencies in Scotland, but we’ll help make your award-winning idea, become a reality.
What is the Aspiring Creative Star Award?
The Aspiring Creative Star Award was designed by The Marketing Society (one of the most influential drivers of marketing in the world) to help give the next generation of talent in the marketing industry a chance to shine. The winners of the award gain industry recognition for their talent as well as the opportunity to work with agencies like ours on a paid internship programme and a year’s membership to The Marketing Society Scotland.
Who can apply?
Anyone who has a passion for creativity and an eagerness to carve their place in the industry. There is no age limit, you don’t have to be studying, and you can already have experience, though you cannot already be working in a creative role in the advertising/creative industry.
Why enter?
This is your chance to open doors into one of the most exciting industries and careers. Even being shortlisted you’ll get to network with industry leaders and experts and gain recognition for your ideas and work. We’ve had runners-up work with us on internships and go on to get more internships at top UK agencies and brands. Most of all, it gives you a rare chance to shine in front of decision-makers in a competitive market. And have fun and gain skills while doing so.
What’s next?
Here’s everything you need to know about the process.
We’ll be releasing the brief soon, then you can get cracking. You can choose to complete this as a team or individually. Last year's winners were a team of three, but we also chose to have the runner-up with us for the internship too — check out the campaign we helped them develop for Bank of Scotland’s Student account here.
The formats can change year to year, but this is where you can let your talents shine, by creating an overall campaign concept, demonstrating its stretch over social, digital, and more traditional channels like OOH. You can submit a video, design, written piece, or all of the above, as long as it answers the brief and flexes your abilities.
After your submission, we’ll review your work along with other industry experts, then The Marketing Society will release the shortlist. And the shortlisted people or teams present their ideas to us face to face. This is a great opportunity to help us understand your process and the thinking behind your ideas, but it’s also a great opportunity to network. Then it's show time - the awards event to announce the winner on, 12th of June.
Are you ready to shine?
Head to the Star Awards homepage to set up an account, read the full brief, and enter for free.
Key Dates
February - Brief live
18th April – Submission deadline
5th May – Short list revealed
19th May – Presentations
12th June – Winner Announced
Summer – Internship starts