There has been wide demand for D&AD to provide an offering to recent graduates with the current gap in opportunities between the Student Awards and the Professional Awards. Thousands of talented graduates are desperate to get into the creative industry. D&AD's new Graduate Academy helps young creatives get a look in. The new initiative will aim to help 50 talented graduates enter the workplace through paid placements in the UK's top agencies and support their career development through workshops, mentoring and training.Produce a campaign to announce the launch of the Graduate Academy that clearly communicates the benefits to students and industry.

The campaign, shot by award winning photographer Paul Thompson, features attention grabbing tight crops of real students enviously trying to ‘get a look in’ to their chosen creative career. The campaign brand flexibly works across print, interior and digital applications.A1 posters and A6 postcards were mailed to universities and life-size window vinyls covered the launch event. We also devised a takeover of the D&AD website to post the brief. A campaign to industry ran alongside this, encouraging companies across the UK to provide placements for successful graduates.

It was extremely successful launch, with the competition brief being download more than 900 times in the first 2 days alone and over 1,800 times in the first week.