The International Advertising Association (IAA) Australia has announced PASE AGENCY team from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) as National Champions of the IAA BIG IDEA 2025 Challenge.
The runner-up team is YO-SU team from the University of Canberra, with the other two finalist teams being BOOMERANG ONE from Edith Cowan University and AVENUE AGENCY from UTS.
Over 150 undergraduate students from all over Australia participated in the IAA BIG IDEA 2025 Challenge, with four teams emerging as finalists.
IAA BIG IDEA is Australia’s national marketing communications challenge, specially created for undergraduate teams from Australian universities and colleges with courses in advertising, marketing, media and communications. The program gives students the opportunity to hone their communication skills and talents in a real world, career-ready hands-on learning experience with a real-life client project that is critical training in the preparation of graduates for transition from university into professional practice.
TELSTRA was IAA’s client partner for IAA BIG IDEA 2025. This year’s IAA BIG IDEA challenge was to create an innovative, high impact campaign to reinforce Telstra’s recent brand repositioning which is on a journey to change how the brand feels, making it a more imaginative, warm and optimistic brand focusing on the superiority of the Telstra network via its coverage and security.
Alita McMenamin, Telstra head of brand, network and sponsorship, who was chair of the jury summed up the judges’ evaluations of the finalist teams presentations: “The jury were impressed with the standard of work and the professionalism of the presentations. They set a high benchmark and the passion and enthusiasm shone through.”
“It was wonderful to provide the students with a real business challenge and see the way each team approached it. The responses were creatively different, but all based on genuine audience insights. Strategies were clear and the creative ideas were all memorable, distinctive, credible, engaging and well integrated across channels.”
The four finalist teams pitched their campaigns to the judges in face-to-face presentations, following which the winning team was selected. PASE AGENCY from UTS was announced winner and presented with the IAA BIG IDEA 2025 National Champions trophy by IAA Australia chair, Heather Leembruggen at an event hosted by Telstra at its CIC premises in Sydney. Attendees were welcomed with presentations from Sheba Nandkeolyar, IAA Australia president and Tara Mahapatra, IAA Young Professionals Australia joint president.
“The IAA BIG IDEA Challenge was one of the most enriching learning experiences I’ve had! Working with Telstra on a real brief was incredibly rewarding and has strengthened my strategic and creative skillset. I’m so grateful to both the IAA and Telstra for this amazing opportunity – the feedback and guidance from the panel have given me the confidence to take the next step in my career,” said Pippa Cullinan, communications director of the winning UTS team.
“The IAA BIG IDEA Challenge is an outstanding opportunity for undergraduates to get commercial experience working on a live brief from a major advertiser. It replicates pitching in the agency world and provides valuable job-ready skills that give all participants an advantage when applying for agency roles. You don’t get much bigger than working on a Telstra brief, as we did this year, and the quality of the student recommendations is testament to the seriousness with which they value this experience,” commented Malcolm Auld, senior lecturer at UTS and faculty advisor for the winning UTS team.
Summing up the 2025 IAA BIG IDEA challenge, IAA Australia chair, Heather Leembruggen, who co-founded this program in 2003 and has conducted it annually for 23 years said, “IAA BIG IDEA 2025 finalist teams delivered some high quality submissions which showcased insightful ideas and innovative solutions presented with an impressive degree of professionalism, and this is what makes IAA BIG IDEA so rewarding for all participants involved in this program.
“For the past 23 years, IAA is proud to have given over 3,000 students the opportunity to use their talents and hone their skills in working on a hands-on project for a real-life client in a real world situation which gives them a valuable learning experience and a real taste for their future careers. Fostering professional development and equipping the upcoming generation to be future-ready is a key IAA mission and IAA BIG IDEA truly encapsulates that. My congratulations to all those who participated in the IAA BIG IDEA 2025 challenge—they all won a valuable and amazing experience!”
This year, IAA BIG IDEA was supported by Telstra as client partner and MultiConnexions as planning partner.
