SEAT has linked up with some of the UK’s top universities to offer creative students the chance to become bona fide filmmakers, working with a substantial budget.
The ‘Young Creative Project’ offered student teams from ten universities the chance to come up with innovative ideas that capture the spirit of the SEAT brand. They would then have the chance to commit their ideas to one or more short films.
Each team was asked the same thing: bring ENJOYNEERING to life.
All ten teams spent time coming up with ideas that would capture the essence of ENJOYNEERING, appealing to some of the marketing industry’s leading experts – and, of course, the general public.
They were each invited to pitch their concepts to a panel comprising marketing agencies AnalogFolk and MediaCom, and members of the SEAT management team.
The pitching process saw ten teams become five, each handed a £5,000 budget from SEAT with which to bring their concepts to reality. The five successful teams were:
- Bournemouth University
- Kingston University
- Loughborough University
- Newcastle University
- University of Reading
Each was chosen for the innovative, idiosyncratic nature of their concepts, and each told to use their £5,000 budget whichever way they saw fit.
Spearheaded by SEAT’s Head of Marketing, Chris Stevens, the Young Creative Project is a ground-breaking initiative – truly a case of a ‘young spirited’ brand putting its money where its mouth is.
Chris said: “We took a bit of a gamble by allowing teams of unknown and untested students to play around with our brand identity and image in this way, especially given that we had no idea of the kind of material it would lead to.
“However, we wanted to work outside the traditional marketing and advertising agency channels for once, so we could get a fresh view of how young creatives perceived our brands and find out how they would communicate them to the public.
“The sheer strength of some of the creative concepts generated and the quality of the films produced was simply mind-blowing. To say we were impressed would be an understatement.
“At this stage, we’re unsure of where or how we’ll use much of the content created through this project, but we do know how valuable it can be and it will certainly be in the mix and influencing our thinking when we’re developing future campaigns and strategies.”
The highly impressive completed films are available to view now on the SEAT UK website, and the Club SEAT YouTube page.
SEAT is so pleased with the results of the first Young Creative Project, it is looking to work with more student teams in future, to create more original, cutting edge content.
And to promote a bit of healthy competition among this crop of students, SEAT will give every member of the university team whose video gets the most online views a £150 Amazon voucher.
A summary of each video:
Bournemouth University
Inspired by the traditional grape-stomping festivals of Spain, the Bournemouth team organised a fun-filled feet painting event in the town’s Lower Gardens, inviting hundreds of passers-by to ditch their shoes and socks, dip their feet in a colourful selection of paints and walk, skip or dance across a giant canvas laid out on the ground. Then, at the end of the day, the students peeled off an invisible stencil to reveal a massive SEAT logo, painted by the community.
Kingston University
Kingston’s innovative video takes driving back to it’s most basic, fun form – but without using a car. Using a leaf blower to replicate that ‘wind in your hair’ sensation, the Kingston team captured the raw emotion and happiness of the open road…pure ENJOYNEERING.
Loughborough University
Loughborough University takes an industrial approach to ENJOYNEERING, juxtaposing classical music with heavy duty machinery. With sparks flying, the workers of the factory produce an object that’s pure, simple fun: a slinky toy, ENJOYNEERED to perfection.
Newcastle University
Newcastle’s first video features a string duet travelling through the city in a Lima Green Ibiza, before going onto the iconic metro train network. The second video uses clips of our Barcelona factory over the decades, mixed with a scantily clad girl having our ENJOYNEERING slogan projected on to her.*
University of Reading
Reading created three videos with its budget. The first depicts a young couple getting carried away while painting their house in the iconic SEAT red; the second shows a young boy and his own journey of ENJOYNEERING his train track; and the third – due for release shortly – makes creative use of an airhorn.