• Charles Sturt marketing-communications students maintain outstanding record of performance in annual national competition
• Final-year students develop strategies in response to real-world briefs for clients
• This type of industry engagement leads to high graduate employment outcomes for Charles Sturt’s communication students

For the 11th consecutive year Charles Sturt University (Charles Sturt) student teams are finalists in the annual International Advertising Association (IAA) 2019 ‘Big Idea’ national inter-university marketing-communications competition.

The Kajulu Blue and Kajulu White teams from the Charles Sturt School of Communication and Creative Industries are among five finalist teams selected from 200 students from universities across Australia.

They will present their ‘Big Idea Pitch’ on Monday 11 November in Sydney, where the national champion team will then be announced.

The 2019 nominated client is Coca-Cola Australia and the brief was to address the plastic waste problem by increasing the number of plastic bottles being recycled through container deposit schemes.

Kajulu Communications is the Charles Sturt on-campus student advertising agency for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Communication (Advertising), Bachelor of Communication (Advertising)/Bachelor of Business (Marketing), and Bachelor of Communication (Advertising and Public Relations).

Acting Head of the School of Communication and Creative Industries Dr Sharon Schoenmaker said, “The final-year advertising students have been very competitive in the IAA competition in the past, and I hope this year will produce a similar result.

“School of Communication and Creative Industry students engage in a variety of competitions that see our final-year students developing strategies in response to real-world issues for clients.

“This type of industry engagement is a key factor in the high graduate employment outcomes achieved by Charles Sturt’s communication students.”

Ms Anne Llewellynn, senior lecturer and advertising discipline lead in the School, said, “This is the 11th consecutive year Charles Sturt Kajulu teams have made it to the finals of the Big Idea, and I am so proud of these students.

“It was a really challenging brief but such a worthwhile problem to solve, and they put their hearts and souls into this work.

“Well deserved congratulations to all, and we look forward to presenting their pitches at the finals.”

The students in the two all-female Kajulu teams are:

Kajulu White – advertising students Ms Saskia-Jayne Handley, Ms Olivia Coxon, Ms Sara Evans, and graphic design student Ms Carrie Woods

Kajulu Blue − advertising students Ms Carla Arcuri, Ms Bernadette Flannery, Ms Leah Green, Ms Sophie Hobson, Ms Jasmine Lagudi, and graphic design student Ms Pia Bates.

Chair of the ‘Big Idea’ judging panel and CEO of Clemenger BBDO Ms Gayle While thanked all the teams for their entries and said, “Coco-Cola shared an interesting business problem, and it was exciting to see such a breadth of creative thinking.

“Each response was distinct and demonstrated the time and effort each team put into finding new insights and behaviours to help drive change.

“There are a number of potential winning ideas and I’m looking forward to seeing the finalists present in a couple of weeks.