Enter the 2023 FM Creative Challenge

The FM’s annual Creative Challenge is open and runs until September 21 2023.

The Creative Challenge shares its theme this year with the Adfocus Awards, and will also celebrate the “alchemy of AI, data and DNA” — but there’s a twist. “The FM hopes to see creatives take this idea of alchemy and mix some serious fizz bang into their work,” says Jadi Tillim, Adfocus Awards project director. “Plus, it’s fine for agencies to use tools like AI for this, it’s the creative ingenuity and thinking behind the ad that will really count.”

All creatives are invited to enter a full-page tactical ad on behalf of a client which is based on an article from the current news cycle. Those ads that make a big impact on the editors will be published weekly in the FM over the next eight weeks.

The Creative Challenge was introduced just over a decade ago, originally as an initiative of the Times newspaper. When the Times became a digital-only paper, the Creative Challenge moved to another group title, the FM.

FM contributing editor Sarah Buitendach explains that the FM snatched the opportunity to own the Creative Challenge, recognising a synchronicity between the competition and the magazine.

“The FM has developed a reputation for its award-winning covers tackling all kinds of topics, so we’re used to dealing with the power of one single page to visually sell a magazine every week,” she says.

Explaining what the judges look for, she says ads that convey their message quickly and simply tend to do well. “We look for fun, cheek, personality, a bit of fizz bang — and a message that turns a brand or topic on its head and still mirrors the ethos of FM, which is about excellence and taking risks.”

Entries to the Creative Challenge close at midnight on September 21.

Further information on the 2023 FM Creative Challenge, entry criteria and closing dates can be found at cc.fm.co.za, or e-mail Jadi Tillim at tillimj@arena.africa.