Ipsos, the market research company responsible for the emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) cross-platform audience survey, has joined forces with UnLtd to create a new campaign competition “emma Strategic Thinker”.

The initiative aims to prove the power of research to figure out and solve the problems that really matter – setting itself apart from other pro-bono campaign award programs, that are heavily focused on the media planning and idea components.

Each emma Strategic Thinker brief will ask industry members to tap into real life insights to address complex problems for youth charities.

The first Strategic Thinker pilot was held exclusively for GroupM agencies, incentivising staff to enter by offering the winners a trip to the IAB Digital NewFronts in New York.

The brief asked GroupM staff to help youth charity, MMAD (Musicians Making A Difference), achieve financial sustainability for its vital programs.

UnLtd CEO Steve Taitoko said the Ipsos partnership has opened up a new highly effective way of connecting with industry.

“People want to do cause-related work and they want to donate their time and expertise to make a difference in the world. For us, it’s about finding the most effective ways to harness and activate the media community. Ipsos and GroupM have strongly supported us in co-creating this program,” Taitoko said.

“Strategic Thinker will be a key part of our industry engagement model next year, enabling us to powerfully transfer our industry’s skills, resources and talents into major social outcomes. We are delighted with the outcome of our pilot.”

Within GroupM agencies the first emma Strategic Thinker competition attracted 34 high quality submissions.

And the winners? John Dawson (MFA Grand Prix Winner 2015) and Jack Smyth (Cannes Gold Lion Winner 2015), both from Mindshare Sydney.

However, the winning idea is so great, organisers are not giving anything away yet. The highly innovative idea positions the notion of ‘giving’ in a unique and powerful way. So powerful that the judges believe it will have a profound impact on connecting youth with music, giving and the MMAD cause.

“The winning idea is so good we need to keep it under wraps until launch,” GroupM’s Greg Graham said.

“All we can say at this stage is that it’s very edgy, very aligned to the MMAD purpose and completely blew the judging panel away in terms of the research undertaken and leading insights.

“A well thought out media schedule or targeted campaign alone would not have been able solve this brief for MMAD. Our entrants had to really dig deep and get into the Australian public psyche and culture around giving to understand where the real opportunities existed – and that’s exactly what John and Jack did in creating this amazing concept.”

In the new year, UnLtd will be working with GroupM’s winners and MMAD to roll out the winning fundraising idea.

Head of business development at Ipsos Brian Hogan said they were excited about demonstrating the importance of research and insights to create winning communications strategies.

“We believe in the power of insights.  True insights have the ability to drive remarkable ideas…remarkable ideas delivering game changing results. Combined with the creativity and smarts of the media industry, research and insights can in turn solve the biggest of challenges,” Hogan said.

Following the success of the GroupM pilot, Ipsos and UnLtd intend to roll the program out more broadly in 2016.