Pot Noodle Radio Awards

Client: Unilever

Pot Noodle had been organising the Radio Awards since 1999. The competition targeted pairs of secondary school students with the brief "to write a wacky 40 second radio ads - complete with sound effects, voice-overs, etc". Short listed entries were showcased by participating local radio stations and the winning entry won a prize for both the students and their school.

Real Event's Brief

Although already a successful competition, Real Events was approached by Unilever in 2001 to evaluate the programme and examine areas that could be improved upon.  Our research was conducted with relevant teachers and students and related to: the pitch of the competition, target procedures, prizes, uptake of participation, modes of eliciting support from institutes, briefing material, rules, deadlines, design of briefing material, level of support given to schools, etc.

The Results

Our findings on the above, directly informed the direction of the competition for the academic year 2001/2002. We provided a teaching consultant to tailor the competition to meet Junior Certificate/Transition Year media studies curriculum objectives and advised Pot Noodles on the design, pitch and layout of the material being sent to teachers and students. We also elicited direct support from teachers' associations and unions.

As a pilot programme to support the competition, Real Event sent teams of vivacious drama, art and media studies teachers into over 50 schools in Cork, Limerick and Galway to give work-shops on creative advertising, script writing, special sound effects, improvisations, etc.  The teams visited 180 Schools a day in rural and urban areas and spoke to 12,000 students during the run of the promotion.