Projects
Blue Idea's projects cover various needs of IQads' and SMARK's audiences. The aspiring young, who want to learn more about advertising and want to attend internships, can make use of the IQads Kadett program. For them and for all those who consider themselves as creative, there is TheCreator platform, where contests such as Grand Spoof, the only ad parody competition in Romania, take place. And, since in advertising consumers are the most important jury, Blue Idea organizes annually BestAds, online festival where the IQads community decides which were the best ads of the previous year. And for those who wish to test their knowledge about ads, the AdPlay competition is the best chance they have.
IQads Kadett is the project that identifies and contributes to the formation of talented young Romanians by recommending and directing them towards the companies (marketing, communication or sales departments) and communication agencies (advertising, PR, branding, market research, etc) that want to select the best young professionals. The project links the academic environment and the marketing and communication industry, giving young people the chance to gain relevant arguments and experiences in their attempt to start a career.
The Creator is IQads' User Generated Content competition platform. IQads users, advertising enthusiasts, always willing to measure their creative potential, are the first to sign up for these competitions. The competition is transparent: all participants can see the entries, they can comment on them and can promote them in social networks. Based on the organizer's requirements, the competition can have either a public vote, within the platform, or it can be evaluated and graded by a professional jury, or both. Competitions held so far were:
- Grand Spoof 2010 (http://creator.iqads.ro/grand_spoof/inscrieri )
- Who is (s)he banking with? (http://creator.iqads.ro/scurtmetraje_cu_final_impus/inscrieri )
BestAds is the only online advertising festival, held at the beginning of each year since 2005. This is where the largest jury votes – over 25.000 active members of the IQads community. Thus, the most voted ranking of original ads created by Romanian agencies during the previous year is created, split in 5 BestAds categories: TV clip, soundtrack, print, radio spot, campaign. Each edition gathers over 11.000 votes.
AdPlay is the only competition that tests participants' abilities to recognize ads, slogans and brand information. Throughout one month, on adplay.ro, participants' sense of advertising direction is tested with over 1.000 questions on Romanian ads at each edition.
Whether we are considering the correct association of slogans with the brands that use them, the recognition of a TV spot based on just a few stop-frames or an audio excerpt, or the right answer to brand related questions, all stages of the competition tests contestants' acumen and sharpness regarding advertising.
Grand Spoof is the only Romanian ad parody contest. This creativity exercise addressing advertising enthusiasts is organized, as tradition requires, during ADfel, the unconventional advertising festival. During each edition, the submitted parodies are evaluated by 2 juries: the professional one (made up of specialists of the marketing and communication industry) and the general public.
All spoofs are available on ADfel's website, as they are accepted in the competition, and a Top 10 of the best spoofs, according to the professionals and the general audience, is premiered at ADfel festival.
Up to now, competing or winning parodies from Grand Spoof have constantly drawn attention from the audience, soon reaching viral status. Two of the most recent examples are “Champions' Porno-leaguee”, Happy Fish's winning spoof from 2009, or “Budai Beer”, a clip thatpromotedd an imaginary beer brand, as a parody to the Budweiser style.