Two+Two was brilliant again this year and the quality of the ideas the student teams came up with, simply phenomenal. This year we were tackling Food Waste, for Stockport Council’s Climate Action Now (CAN) Initiative, with a local response to the proposition of “Help save the planet, one bite at a time”. One of the Leaders whispered to me, ‘We could put 3 teams through’. Every team got to pitch their idea in a series of mini-pitches, with 6 finalists battling it out for 1st place. The winners this year were the Red Snakes, with their “Nowt wrong with it” campaign, very worthy winners with a hugely campaignable idea and apt in this year of the snake!
Firstly, massive thanks are due to McCann Manchester, The APS Group and Havas Lynx, for becoming event partners and providing financial support and services to help us fund the event. It simply couldn’t happen without you.
As always, huge thanks to all our Leaders, Mentors & Judges, the Universities that encouraged and brought their students, this year’s client, Stockport CAN, the Event Partners and Creative Resourcers who made it all possible. There follows a big list because it takes all these wonderful people and a lot of billable hours to pull it off.
Sponsors and Partners
A very special thank you to this year’s sponsors and partners: The APS Group (James Lawton-Hill and Laura Kay); Havas Lynx (Holly Harkin) and McCann Manchester (Ian Lenehan and Laura Hewes).
Judging Panel
Chair: Tom Richards, CCO 21 Grams and Cannes Lions Jurist; Judges: Paul Dunleavy, CD, APS Group; Dorina D’Ambrosio, Founder and CD, The Behaviours Agency; Cllr Mark Roberts, Deputy Leader of Stockport Council and Cabinet Member for Climate Change; Nick Leslie, Head of Stockport CAN; Liz Atherton, Programme Manager, Stockport CAN.
Leaders, Mentors and Finalists:
The Reds: Leaders: Mital Daya (The Foundry), Jen Jones (DS.Emotion); Mentors: Alister Shapley (Applied Systems Design Studio), Amber Cheyne (Brandon), Olly Sussams (Creative Spark) Amy Hancock (Emperor), Andy Wood (Cairn), Stewart Miller-White (Inizio), Rich Brown (MFuse), Chris Banner (UPP B2B), Finza Aslam (BBC Creative).
The Red Snakes (Gold): Chris Aschmann (Leeds Arts), Lucy Vaughan (Bolton), Aimee Speed (UCEN). Their prize is to develop their idea further with APS Group and the Stockport CAN team and later present their idea to Stockport Council and attend the 2025 Climate Summit. They will also receive mentorships from Emperor.
The Greens: Leaders: Leanne Ledger (Emperor), Dave Armstrong (BDB) Mentors: Aaliyah Rice (BBC Creative), Harley Thomson (Eleven), Caroline Fletcher (Fourth Day PR), Craig Armstrong (Prime), Orlaith Conlon (McCann Manchester), Cally Tennant (Creative Spark), Richard Sharp (The Sharp Agency), Rachael Hill (STM Agency).
The Green Horses (Silver): Yesser Alkazaz (Leeds Arts), Lily Unwin (Sheffield Hallam), Niamh Collins (MMU), Jenna O’Brien (Sheffield). Their prize is a week’s placement at ZEAL Creative and an invite to Brandon Consultants Ignite Ideas workshop.
The Green Dragons (Bronze): Holly Prosser (Leeds Arts), Noah Joe (Salford), Gladys Kwok (Liverpool), Kirsten Walker (MMU). Their prize is a week’s placement at Vivid Everywhere
The Purples: Leaders: Mark Harrington (Creative Director), Holly Wright (BDB). Mentors: Staci Hocknell (Ashfield Medcomms), Karim Elkadi (McCann Manchester), Gracia Novoa (Fox Agency), Becky Barbanneau (Future), Mia McGlynn (Havas), Emma Beech (Emperor), Daniella Thompson (One Agency Media), Tom Vardy (SLG).
The Purple Snakes: Emilia Arnolin (Leeds Arts), Harvey Delahoy (Salford), Zoe Gibbard (Liverpool), Molly Beaton (MMU). Their prize is a meet and greet day including office tour at BBC Creative and individual industry mentorships.
The Blues: Leader: Kieran Edwards (Film Director); Mentors: Chris Siddall (Ashfield Medcomms), James Brown (Brandon), Dan Muir (Eleven), Kareem Belfon (APS), Amy Settle (Havas), Anna Warren-Johnston (McCann), Connor Beighton (Influential), Elle Duke (UPP B2B)
The Blue Roosters: Samar Mohamedin (Leeds Arts), Josh Steels (MMU), Ella Richards (UCEN), Navdha Kumar (Lancaster). Their prize is individual mentorships from a relevant industry professional.
The Yellows: Leaders: Angelo Giaquinto (C21), Molly Linford (Punch). Mentors: George Farrell (APS Group), Hayley Wildsmith (Fresh), Jess Whittaker (Havas Lynx), Emily McDowell (Inizio), Sean Totton (McCann Manchester), Krystal Blackburn (One Agency Media), Milica Trifkovic (SLG)
The Yellow Tigers (6th Place Finalist): Sajjad Hossain (Leeds), Aaron Beatty (Bolton), Naavya Srivastava (Lancaster), Ellie Price (MMU). Their prize is £200 of industry inspiring books from Upp B2B.
Congratulations to you all!
Talent Teams: Catherine MacDonald (STM Agency), Laura Hewes, Talent Acquisition Partner (McCann Manchester), Georgina Ross (Evoke Mind+Matter), Alice Peacock & Chloe Lloyd (Fox Agency), Lisa Jones (Couch Health), Ali Sergeant (Zeal Creative).
Speaker and Two+Two Advocate: Lisa Jones, Couch Health.
Services: Simon Rhodes (APS Group) Photographer, Will Simm & Elizabeth Durbin – UCEN Film Students who did a brilliant job as official videographers for the event!
Universities: Lancaster University (Christina Cooper and Lee Francis); Leeds University (Sally Chan), UCEN (Paolo Feroleto, Alex Komlosy & Peter Wright); University of Bolton (Sarah Joyce); Manchester Metropolitan University (Stuart Grainger, Gerard Devney, Darren Raven); Sheffield Hallam (Pam Bowman, Patrick Walker); University of Salford (Alan Oliver); Leeds Arts University (Nick Young); Staffordshire University (John Hudson, Sam Owen); University of Lincoln (David Thompson), University of Liverpool (Rachel Spence, Cathy McGouran), University of Chester (Janey Deng Klingelfuss)
Venue: 3 Stockport Exchange, Stockport Council kindly allowed us to use this fantastic venue, thank you so much to Helen Roberts, Town Centre Manager and the team at management company CBRE, Susan O’Brien, Kristy Kokojana, Becky Bearsell and the fab security guys.
Last but definitely not least the Creative Resourcers: Phil Cookson, Amanda White, Hannah Timperley, Melanie Schilling, Jane Roura. It takes months of organising and 3 very long days – set up, event day and derig – it’s a lot to ask of them but they LOVE it. Honorary Creative Resourcers this year, Catherine MacDonald and Lisa Jones, Catherine worked like a trojan and Lisa saved me from losing it on several occasions.
Fancy getting involved next year? Hit me up.