Plymouth College of Art students wow Sponge UK with innovative digital campaigns

BA (Hons) Digital Media Production students from Plymouth College of Art have created innovative videos to share online as part of a live industry brief set by digital learning company, Sponge UK. Tasked with creating promotional videos for Sponge’s #explorediscovergrow social media campaign, students were asked to create 15 to 30-second animated or live-action videos for use on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The professional brief gave the students invaluable experience of pitching and presenting their ideas in a commercial environment, to industry experts who were able to provide feedback and tips about how to develop their ideas further.

Dani Endacott, People Development Coordinator at Sponge UK, said: “We’re impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of the students and the breadth of ideas they applied to the challenge. Nearly 40% of our employees at Sponge are graduates from universities and colleges in the region, so nurturing local talent is important to our business. All the participants should be proud of the work they completed as part of the campaign, and we hope they have benefitted from the experience of working in a commercial environment.”  

The overall winner of the challenge was Alice Sposito, who created a short video featuring multiple locations in the Plymouth area. The team at Sponge were particularly impressed by Alice’s understanding of the task and the way she developed and presented her ideas.

Other participants used various types of animation, from traditional Stop Motion to vector based work using After Effects. Many of the students learned new skills as part of the challenge and everyone had the experience of pitching their creative treatment to a panel of experts. The Sponge team worked with the students to provide professional feedback and help them further develop their thinking.

The Sponge UK #explorediscovergrow social media campaign was created by the e-learning company to create brand awareness and encourage engagement on social media platforms by giving away responsibly sourced, natural sponges, with branded tags attached.

Students from Plymouth College of Art were asked to create promotional videos encouraging people to share images of their sponges at different locations around the world, along with a summary of where the photos were taken and what had been learned there. All locations will be added to the Sponge map at spongeuk.com/explore, creating an interactive digital map to demonstrate the reach of the campaign.

Christopher Bailey, BA (Hons) Digital Media Production joint Programme Leader at Plymouth College of Art, said: “This was an excellent opportunity for students to build experience in pitching their ideas directly to prospective clients. The breadth of working methods and techniques demonstrated in their pitches represents some of the pathways that can be pursued with Digital Media Production. I think that Alice’s work stood out because she focused on delivering assets that matched Sponge’s innovative values and answered the brief so directly.”

BA (Hons) Digital Media Production at Plymouth College of Art is a dynamic, outward-facing programme engaging in a range of commercial moving image production, from established forms of TV through to emerging cutting edge digital content. Music videos, commercials, vlogs, drama series, films and more are all supported on this hands-on, practice-based programme, offering access to extensive range of production facilities, including Black Magic portable TV studio, allowing students to also explore live events and streaming.