DDB Australia Partners with FBI Talent on LAUNCH Programme; Offering a Full-Time Job to the Winning Student Team

The initiative provides both student and emerging creative teams in Sydney and Melbourne the opportunity to further showcase their thinking, as well as obtain invaluable education, training and coaching. 

As a free-to-enter initiative, FBI TALENT CO. will award the winning professional team with $10,000 in prize money, as well as ongoing career mentorship. London International Awards (LIA) continues its partnership by offering the winning professional team places in the 2025 LIAisons Coaching Academy. 

 

For this 2nd chapter of LAUNCH, DDB Australia have joined as agency partners, creating briefs for McDonalds and VW. The latter brief will see the winning Student Team secure a FULL-TIME role in either DDB’s Sydney or Melbourne office.

“This is a huge step for LAUNCH. Whilst originally designed to provide the Student winners with a paid internship, we’re so thankful to the DDB Australia team for elevating the prize to a straight up full-time job. After all, getting young talent started and set up for success is what our industry critically needs,” said Michael Kean, FBI TALENT CO.’s CEO.

DDB’s creative leaders in Australia, Psembi Kinstan and Matt Chandler said, “It’s no secret, we all need to do more to foster the next generation of talent into the creative industries. Our work has never needed fresh, diverse voices more urgently. That’s why DDB is incredibly excited to be offering two full-time roles to the winners of the Student brief. We can’t wait to see some brilliant thinking. Whoever comes in first will have a seat in a department filled with brilliantly talented and nice people, working with some of the biggest brands in the country and the world. Good luck to everyone taking part.” 

 

Matt added , “Go Sydney.”

 

Psembi added, “Go Melbourne.”

 

LAUNCH is pleased to continue its partnership with LIA, following the inaugural winning professional team (Daniel Borghesi & Jake Rowland from M&C Saatchi) securing their places in the 2024 Creative LIAisons global virtual coaching programme. 

The importance of this initiative cannot be overstated. This industry is built standing on the shoulders of creative giants. Therefore, establishing a global mentorship programme where mentees can obtain new knowledge, hone their skills and set and achieve their goals is very important. The Creative LIAisons Global Virtual Mentee programme is a golden ticket – it's where each mentee will receive the undivided attention of not one, but three different top creative people and innovators who are willing to share their knowledge, learnings and experience. These bespoke and real time sessions are customized to equip mentees, who are at different stages of their career, with new perspectives, expanded connections and a jump start to their career. The winning professional team for this next chapter of LAUNCH will be awarded places in the 2025 Creative LIAisons Global Coaching Academy.

“LIA has always been a champion of learning and mentoring. It was a perfect fit when we partnered with FBI TALENT CO. and offered two places to the LIA Creative LIAisons Virtual Program. This year, 201 virtual mentees benefitted from this program. Imagine having three top creative people in your corner, not just as a cheerleader, but actually spending their time, sharing their experience and giving guidance. It’s the best way for young creatives to get answers to questions, get constructive feedback and direction as well as encouragement to help navigate their career paths forward. As someone once said, “it’s better to be a fountain than a drain.” Creative LIAisons wants to keep giving back to the industry. We are pleased to hear from both our former and current mentees how much this virtual mentoring programme has been a catalyst for their professional and personal growth,” said Laurissa Levy, LIA Creative LIAisons director.

For the LAUNCH programme, Student teams are eligible so long as they are not currently employed in a creative capacity within an agency; for the Professional stream, any creative team can make a submission if both individuals are under the age of 30. 

The briefs are live now, with submissions open until Friday November 29th. The global juries will be announced soon.

For more information, entry criteria and to access the briefs, visit: https://launch.fbitalent.co/