In August this year I stumbled upon a contest called Bob’s Got No Idea. The brand behind the campaign was yet to be revealed and entrants were asked to submit an essay or video demonstrating some sort of creativity about advertising.

I initially dismissed it but at the last minute (reflecting back, somewhat gladly) decided to enter with this submission…

This put me through to the next round where a group session would take place in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. The morning consisted of some creative activities with a panel interview that afternoon. Here it was revealed to us that the brand was SupaShake, a milk drink you shake to make thicker. Three people were to be selected from around the country to become Flavour Crusaders, who would each be assigned a new flavour. Each Crusader would have to develop the strategy, creative and execution for a campaign to drive consumers to a website to vote on their favourite flavour and their favourite Crusader.

The flavour with the most votes would be put into production and the Crusader with the most votes would receive an additional $10,000 worth of prizes.

A few weeks later I got the call. I was one of three Flavour Crusaders selected. I pocketed $6,300 prize money, a new video camera and an amazing opportunity to head up a campaign for SupaShake.

Over the midsemester break I was put up in a hotel in Melbourne for what at that stage I only knew was a workshop. Tegan from Queensland and Andrew from Western Australia were also flown down where we were introduced to the Morph Marketing crew, the guys that would be helping us along the way.

The weeks consisted of an introduction to the industry, meeting some peeps from Clemenger BBDO and OMD, the development of a strategy, creativity and execution. On the Friday morning, we pitched to the client and the other heads at Fonterra.

Since then, I’ve been working with the client’s feedback, changing the campaign around, developing new ideas and finally, as of only a few weeks ago, settled on a campaign. The launch of the campaign is today. And the campaign is…

Zac won’t stop until Cookies ‘n’ Cream is on top.

As for what I’ve got planned, well I’m sure I’ll keep you updated over the next few months. Luckily for me, the launch is in Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast for schoolies, so I’m heading up there for a week to kick things off.

And it goes without saying, I’d love for you to vote for me.