How to wow the New Blood judges

Your ideas will be judged by a panel of top creatives and brand representatives who will be awarding the New Blood Pencils you're all after. Impressing them with your creativity is the name of the game. But how? Let's find out what tips our past judges have to offer.

1. Always refer back to the brief to avoid creative misjudgement and make sure you answer it.

2. Really think about the brief. Brainstorm your responses and don't just turn to the quick, literal answer.

3. Do your research. Read the brief ten times before thinking. Think and re-think and re-think. Then do it, re-craft and re-craft.

4. ​Don't go with the obvious idea. Chances are tonnes of people will go the same way.

5. Dig deeper and find a strong concept before going for an idea half-heartedly.

6. Make sure you identify problems to come up with well thought out solutions.

7. Insight or rich understanding of the target audience should be the first job of any piece of work.

8. Know what has been done before by the brand and its competitors.

9. Test your idea on people to see if they would actually do it.

10. Go beyond what anyone else might do. If it's too expected, dig deeper.

11. Keep it clean and simple, or the idea can be lost very quickly.

12. Brevity and clarity are key. What's the core concept in a sentence?

13. Focus on distilling the idea and explaining it succinctly. Then elaborate.

14. Check spelling and grammar. Run it through spellcheck or show it to someone else to iron out errors.

15. Keep on going. D&AD standards are exceptionally high so look at the winners and be inspired, though not directly influenced by them.

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