Writing The Future for Doc Martens

D&AD Judging Week kicked off this Sunday at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. This is the 4^th year that Radiocentre have set a D&AD New Blood brief. We wanted to challenge young creative people to produce innovative and well-crafted communication ideas in audio with radio at their heart. This year we’ve been thrilled to work together with Doc Martens, the iconic footwear brand. Doc Martens has a strong British heritage and is synonymous with rebellion, authenticity and uncompromising self-expression. According to Marketing Director Daniel Freedman, there is 93% awareness of the brand in the UK, but the challenge remains to go to keep Docs relevant to a new generation of urban, ‘digital native’ fashionistas. The brief was to create a rallying call against apathy, urging young people to #standforsomething. We know that commercial radio delivers 73 % reach for listeners aged 15-24 and that around 60% of people use radio for new music discovery, so it should be a good channel for the brand’s advertising. At present, Doc Martens use radio sporadically for local, tactical messaging. We wanted to see how students would respond to the challenge of giving radio a role as a brand-building channel.

The jury was looking for two things: evidence of convincing and well-crafted writing for radio and also for imaginative use of the medium – ideas involving radio linking to social, digital out of home or app based technology. There is a common perception that young people don’t listen to radio and that junior creatives struggle to write for it. Encouragingly, there was plenty of evidence amongst the entries that this isn’t the case. With around 150 responses, there was an abundance of effort, left-field thinking and fresh creative talent.

The jury, including Vikki Ross of Vikki Ross Writes, Jamie Starbuck fro from Grey London, Hayley Redman from Innocent, Anthoula Nolan from Ogilvy and Daniel David from LIDA (also a former Radio Yellow Pencil winner) awarded one Yellow Pencil which will be revealed at the New Blood Awards in July. All the work was rigorously debated and decisions were tough. Congratulations to all those who entered and especially to the winners. Joe Strummer, former singer of The Clash and famed DMs fan once said that “The Future is Unwritten”. If this year’s D&AD New Blood entries are anything to go by, the future of radio writing seems to be in very capable hands.

*RAJAR Q4 2015