Shortlist

There are a lot of different companies with a lot of different needs and requirements this year in the YCN student awards. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to go through the submissions, pick out the ones I am most interested in and why. 

Confused.com

This company is a price comparison website that will endeavour to find people cheaper alternatives on a range of different services. Mainly however, it is used to research insurance costs and find the cheapest/best company to go with. For the YCN brief they have asked for students to look at ways to get more 17-25 year olds to use the site to find car insurance. They are very open about the avenues you can take to achieve this goal with only a few requirements (having the logo and using correct fonts etc.). They say they are a fun, young company that is somewhat informal and up for a laugh. However, they do not want this image to compromise the validity of the information they provide. They don't want people to think that they are so jokey and informal that the prices and details they would have on their site would be wrong or invalid. 

I am interested in this brief as I instantly had a few ideas for it and I want to explore them further. It is a fun brief with a lot of creativity and wiggle room allowed. It is quite open ended and free from heavy restrictions and directions which would allow for experimentation and play. I am also within the target audience so I feel like I would know what would appeal to them and be able to create something with the potential to be successful within that age group.

Dominos Pizza

This company is quite a big one. It is the UK's number one pizza delivery service. It is also huge in America (where it was founded). The company too is quite laid back, fun and informal. I would say slightly less so than confused.com however, they are still light hearted and ready to poke fun. Their existing branding and marketing echoes that fact. They create TV adverts which look like jokey films poking fun at famous genres and ideas. Their are a few more things to adhere to with this company however, nothing major. Still just a list of fonts to use and the logo's and things like that. With their YCN brief they would like students to think up a way of reinforcing their superiority in the two for tuesdays arena. As they mention in their brief they actually invented and began the offer of two for tuesdays (along with many other promotions) and they feel as though their name has slipped away from the offer. A lot of other Pizza establishments have now copied the offer with their own catchy slogan and Dominos feel as though when you think of two for tuesdays you no longer think of them and they want someway of reinstating themselves as the two for tuesdays king.

I like this brief a lot and instantly had ideas for it. It was predominantly a poster campaign that sprung to mind however, I could see it moving into other facets. It again is quite free, open ended and experimental in how it is written and structures. There are however, a few more things to be wary of when it comes to branding, colours and typography but it is in no way crippling or over the top. It is fairly simple and sensible. I think that this would be one of the best briefs to go for but I do think that it would be popular so your idea would need to stand out from the crowd.

Eastpak

Eastpak is a bag manufacturer making one of the most famous backpack designs of recent years. They are quite a lot more formal and restrictive than the first two companies. They have a lot of branding guidelines and little things to take note of. They have quite a water tight brand that they do not want compromised. With their brief they would like a piece of media to reinstate themselves as the owner of this particular style of bag and show their lineage with the bag brand. They offer a 30 year warranty on their products so they are confident in them and are very proud of their history. The product create should both show their past and also show that they own the style that they created as a lot of other companies have created very similar bags since.

This brief seems the easiest one to get your teeth into. There is a very simple premise and quite a straight forward direction to go in with it. Again I instantly got some ideas for this brand however, so did everyone else in the class. I think that it is a very limiting brief that has a clear direction and clear issue that needs solving. This makes it easy to formulate ideas and a plan of action. For this reason the brief is both appealing and something to keep distant from. I think that the limit of experimentation and freedom is too much of a compromise for me however, I shall see.