1 brief, 11 slides, 24 hours- how we took on Young Lions PR challenge 2022
By: Immy Keys | Creative
Spring 2022, and it’s that time of year to enter the PR bootcamp that is the PRCA Young Lions PR competition. This year, the client was Mind.
The allocated planning time was 24-hours, the budget was £10,000, and the three challenging campaign objectives were:
Highlight the need for young people to have access to early intervention mental health support
Secure coverage aimed at influencing decision makers in Government to #FundtheHubs
Position Mind as a leader in the third sector involving young people, parents and grandparents and UK government
THIS IS HOW WE ANSWERED THE BRIEF:
Piece of Mind: a campaign to symbolise the vital building blocks to young people’s futures
Here’s how we got there:
Before anything else, we made our working space as zen as possible, filled with healthy snacks (thanks Jo), diffuser on the go, and the rest of the office on stand-by for necessary teas.
Searching for the right bricks
When the brief came through, the highlighters were whipped out, quickly followed by sharpies and post-its.
We dug deep into the latest Mind and NHS mental health reports, searched the social media accounts of the Mental Health Minister – putting our detective hats on to understand the problem at hand.
Through scribbling down every thought - and constantly asking each other questions - we were ready to cluster our ideas into groups.
Hitting a brick wall
An inevitable part of the intense process, but walks were the saviour of the day. Every time we felt like we were reaching a brick wall, we headed out for a walk.
By recording our ramblings through voice notes on route, we returned with fresh thoughts and leads to follow.
Building a strong base
The beginnings of our idea emerged around 3pm but we knew it could be better.
For the next couple of hours, we challenged and moulded until it felt exactly right.
By 7pm, we had the beginnings of a deck hashed out.
New skills
Around 9pm Immy (the Creative in our duo) took on the task of learning an entirely new piece of software to mock up the kits…
Figuring out how to use a Lego building simulator was a challenge - and not how we ever imagined spending a Thursday night - but we knew we wanted our final result to look like the real deal, so the learning was imperative.
Overnight Construction
We worked through the night, fuelled by 4am churros and walks around the block (perfectly timed with students coming back from a night out), until at 9am we were finally ready to submit- proud and more than a little tired!
We’re both fresh(ish) out of uni and pretty early on in our PR careers so it was a huge learning experience, but one that we have valued so much since.
Growth never comes from staying inside your comfort zone, this goes for creative ideas and personal development. When you don’t know what the final idea looks like, and you have a tight timeline to work to, play up to your strengths and believe in yourself. You never know what walk, churro or fond childhood toy, the missing piece might just be.
By Tara Lee and Immy Keys