Creative competition bestYET: sparkling ideas for Belgian beer

Within the next 24 hours, 36 young creatives from all over Europe have to design a newspaper campaign for the beer brand "Stella Artois". Because in advertising, it's not just good ideas that count, but also the speed with which you put them on paper.
The use of computers is permitted for researching and planning the campaign, but the young creatives are only allowed to use paper, scissors, glue and a few pens to design the subject(s) - a real challenge for the "Generation Mobile". Nine teams of two want to prove that they are the best European creative duo under the age of 29.

The task

The task facing the young creatives this year is a tough one: they have to design a print campaign that really whets the appetite for Stella Artois lager, the premium brand of the host brewery. The beer is to be positioned as a lifestyle drink for the upper class.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is the largest beer brewery in the world in terms of turnover. Well-known beer brands such as Beck's, Budweiser, Franziskaner, Leffe and Stella Artois are produced in Leuven. Stella Artois was brewed as early as 1366 in the Belgian brewery "Den Horen" (The Horn). The beer's logo still tells the story of the drinkable barley potion today: the horn in the logo is a reminder of the first brewery, Artois was the family name of the second generation of brewers who ran the brewery, and the word element "Stella" refers to the fact that the first Stella Artois was a Christmas beer. Stella Artois is exported to more than 80 countries.

"I'm looking forward to surprising, creative ideas," said InBev's Head of Marketing at the briefing. "But don't forget that InBev has to sell beer. So: keep it simple." Indeed, eye-catchers that work quickly are required. After all, a print advertisement has to captivate the reader in less than two seconds, otherwise it will be skimmed over.

Now the heads and pencils of the 36 up-and-coming creatives who competed for bestYet this year are smoking:

The participants
Belgium
Team 1: Kristof Goossens & Wout Geysen, Germaine
Team 2: Yannick Pringels & Antoine de Bellefroid, College of Advertising and Design Brussels
Germany
Team 1: Laura Bender & Benita Buchholzer, Heye & Partner Munich
Team 2: Daniel Hahn & Ivo Berg, University of Graphic Arts Saar
England
Team 1: Cate Anderson, HS&P & Emily Chambers, Crayon
Team 2: Gavin Johnson, BMB & Julia Earthrowl, Grey
France
Team 1: Emmanuel Guillon & Alban Gallée, TBWA Paris
Team 2: Louis Carpentier & Cédric Hamelin, Young & Rubicam
Croatia
Team 1: Matea Vuglac, Student at University of Rijeka & Goran Rozic, Creator IT-Agency
Team 2: Andrijana Bosnjak, University of Zagreb & Ivan Bosnjak, Freelance Designer
Netherlands
Team 1: Gijs Sluijters & Joris Tol, FHV/BBDO
Team 2: Vanessa Burgmans & Billy Witbraad, Publicis
Norway
Team 1: Tim Oudenstad, Bridgestone & Jörgen H. Band, Prosjektdesign
Team 2: Martine Flatlie & Marte Alstad Hansen, Westerdals School of Communications
Austria
Team 1: Karoline Kriechbaum & Marco Peis
Team 2: Patrick Tafner & Stefan Ohner
Switzerland
Team 1: Manuel Rohrer, Contexta & Samuel Huber, Student
Team 2: Filip Wolfensberger, Maxomedia & Dominic Zach, preparation for self-employment
Each of the participating teams had already won a preceding creative competition in their country of origin and was thus selected to take part in the best YET 2010. The two Swiss teams took first and second place in "Only an advertisement can do that".

Winning bestYet is worthwhile: the bestYET winning team's creation will be published throughout Europe. In addition, the winners get to travel for four days to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, which takes place in the French metropolis from June 21 to 26.
Tomorrow, Friday, May 7, the nine teams will present their work in English to the top-class international jury and the media representatives of the countries. The jury members may advise the teams during their work and give them tips on how to implement the campaign and present their ideas. However, influencing the creative idea is prohibited.

The jury
Belgium: Frank Marinus, Creative Director TBWA Brussels, Chairman of the Jury
England: Stef Jones, owner of Big Al's Creative Emporium
France: Guillaume Chifflot, Vice President & Head of Creation Leo Burnett France
Croatia: Branimir Klaric, Co-Art-Director Vecernji list
NetherlandsArnout Robbe, Senior Copywriter Publicis
Norway: Sindre Veseth Foss, Art Director Ernø Advertising Company
Austria: Alexander Rabl
Switzerland: Andreas Prokesch, owner of Andreas Prokesch Konzepte & Texte and President of the Art Directors Club
The winners of the creative competition will be announced tomorrow at around 7 pm. On twitter.com/advertisingweek and Advertisingweek.ch to find out who the best young creatives in Europe are.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm
The Swiss:

Impressions from Leuven: