How Turning Bedroom Mould into Cheese Sent these UK Young Lions to Cannes
How do you stimulate positive PR to highlight the black mould that’s endemic in the UK? You serve it up as blue cheese in the Houses of Parliament of course. That’s the winning idea that took The Romans creatives Scarlet Pughe and Jack Moriarty to Cannes to represent the UK PR industry, after they won the London round of the Cannes Young Lions competition in March this year.
Tasked with crafting an innovative strategy that addresses a pressing issue in just 24 hours, Scarlet and Jack conceptualised ‘Bedroom Blue’ for children’s charity Barnardo's, and emerged victorious amongst the UK PR industry, before getting ready to take on the global competition in the Palais, where they’d have to tackle a whole new brief.
Talking to LBB about their experiences as part of the competition, Jack and Scarlet discuss how they maximised those precious 24 hours, their experiences presenting to a world-class jury, and how the process influenced their creative approach.
LBB> Congrats on your win! Starting from the beginning, what was the initial UK Cannes Young Lions brief, and how did you approach it?
Jack and Scarlet> We were asked to develop an idea for children’s charity, Barnado’s, to highlight the child poverty issue in the UK. We had 24 hours to come up with an idea and then pull together a ten slide presentation to bring it to life and pitch it to a panel of PR pros.
With such a tight turnaround, we took an approach which allowed us to work alone for a period of time and then come together to share, build and bin ideas. We repeated this process over and over until we landed on the idea which, thankfully, gave us plenty of time to pull together a strong deck.
LBB> Tell us a bit more about your winning campaign, ‘Bedroom Blue’, where did the idea come from?
Jack and Scarlet> After some thorough research, we found that one in three young families are stuck in homes with a hazardous mould problem, however this wasn’t being widely covered by the press or politicians. This got us thinking, if this hazardous mould was in their homes, would they allow it to put their health at risk? The answer is, obviously, no.
This question felt powerful as it evoked a reaction which forced the audience to think from the perspective of the people we’re fighting for, we just needed a vehicle to bring that question to life.
That’s where ‘Bedroom Blue’ came about. A Blue Cheese made using the very same mould that plagues the homes of millions in Britain. Inspired by the cheese that’s served to, and eaten by, politicians on the (subsidised) cheese board at the Houses of Parliament.
LBB> You emerged victorious at the UK Young Lions competition back in April, how did you prepare to represent the UK PR industry at the Global Young Lions competition?
Jack and Scarlet> For us, preparation was really about agreeing on an approach to the brief to ensure that we used our 24 hours in the most effective way possible. We chatted through our strengths and weaknesses, identified the things that might cause us problems on the day – like Jack’s ability to wind up Scarlet at any opportunity – and then agreed on a plan to give us the best opportunity to not only succeed, but ensured that we enjoyed the process.
LBB> And what brief were you tasked with once you got to the competition in Cannes?
Jack and Scarlet> We were asked to launch a new initiative called Jood Kitchen, a Moroccan charity which aids the reintegration of the homeless into communities through food. Every year, the charity takes around 50 people off the streets and into kitchens so they can train as professional chefs. Our challenge was to target decision makers in businesses to make use of their new talents and hire them as a permanent or temporary catering staff.
LBB> You had to present your idea to an impressive jury, how did you find that?
Jack and Scarlet> For us, presenting is the most exciting and enjoyable part of any response to a brief, so we felt pretty confident going into it. However, presenting to a panel who are as qualified and experienced as those on our jury did not come without some additional work.
We really had to think about the way in which we presented, the language we used and the insights we brought to the table. Ensuring that our idea was pitched in a simple manner without losing the fun and energy that comes with presenting your work. The feedback we received in the room was positive, so we left feeling pretty proud of ourselves.
LBB> Finally, will your experiences in Cannes affect or change the way you work now you’re back?
Jack and Scarlet> Naturally as creatives, we’re always open to new ways of working and we felt that the challenge of the competition does force you to rethink the way you work. It’s cliche, but we both came back from the competition feeling incredibly inspired and energised to push ourselves that little bit harder on every brief we get.
Creatives definitely need time to get lost in a brief and do nothing, but this competition has really opened our eyes as to what can be done in just 24 hours. There’s definitely some truth in the phrase ‘pressure makes diamonds’...
