Swinburne students win 2021 Advertising Capstone Challenge

Team Nexus’s campaign explored mateship, what it meant, and how mates could be made along the journey by supporting business owners who’d been impacted by lockdowns. 

The team swapped clichéd destinations like Eureka Tower for the Cat Café and focused on the inner-city experiences people don’t know about. The campaign featured a strong social strategy and a streaming component: a Netflix documentary about little-known city gems. 

Their presentation impressed. ‘The thinking was excellent and the presentations were polished. We really are looking at the next generation of digital natives,’ says Executive Creative Director of M&C Saatchi Sydney, Mandie van der Merwe. 

Creativity and practice in action

Swinburne’s involvement with the Advertising Capstone Project illustrates how symbiotic the relationship between students, Swinburne mentors and industry partners can be. 

 ‘It’s an advertising practice degree, so it’s critical that students understand the industry they’re about to go into,’ says advertising lecturer David Reid.

 ‘The program gives students a sneak peek of what they can expect in the real world. This equips them with tools to be job-ready,’ says Tejhaswinee.

‘Programs like this remind us of the value of creativity and give us all the opportunity to feed off it. Hats off to the organisers for getting this right,’ says Mandie.

For the students, the experience has been priceless. 

 ‘It was amazing for every one of our résumés, not just the people who won, but for everyone who presented,’ says Tom. 

Next steps 

The winning team will have the opportunity to participate in internships at M&C Saatchi Australia, and receive one-to-one mentoring with executives there, too. 

 ‘It will be exciting to see what comes from the mentorship,’ says Tom. 

‘This could be life-changing. This could help us in the long run,’ says Naomi.