News

The UK’s leading done in a day creative-for-good awards, The Creative Shootout, is back for its eighth year and is now open for entry.

This year’s charity theme is ‘Hidden Disabilities’ and from all the charity entries received over the Summer, Epilepsy Action has been chosen as the Shootout’s Charity of the Year 2025.

Any discipline marketing agency (integrated, advertising, PR, digital, social, brand, experiential or other), in house or freelance team, can now enter the Shootout by submitting a 60 second entry at www.creativeshootout.com. The entry must be relevant to this year’s theme of ‘Hidden Disabilities’ or Epilepsy Action.

Epilepsy Action, who celebrate their 75th anniversary in 2025, provides support for those living with epilepsy and their families. Millions of seizures happen every day and Epilepsy Action’s mission is to provide the right resources, advocacy and education to improve the lives of the 630,000 people currently living with epilepsy in the UK.

Entry to this year’s awards is open until 29th November 2024, from where eight teams will be chosen by a panel of high profile judges, to take part in the Live Final Show on Thursday 30th January 2025, held at the iconic BAFTA in Piccadilly, London.

On Live Final day, the finalist teams will receive the charity’s creative brief at lunchtime. They then have just four hours to work on their creative before pitching it back in the evening, in just eight minutes each, to the judges and live audience of hundreds.

A winning team is crowned on the night and walks away with Epilepsy Action as a new client, a £10,000 prize and support from a range of significant partners, including Clear Channel, Acast and markettiers to bring their campaign to life later on in 2025.

Also brand new this year are two bespoke ‘Creativity Under Pressure’ training courses. The three hour courses are available to those entering the awards, but also to any team after some unique creative training. Built and customised for The Creative Shootout specifically, the two courses will be run by leaders in their field: Matt Follows, founder of Pressure Proof Creative, former Creative Director at W+K and a trained psychotherapist – James Hayhurst, Founder of The Magic Sauce Course and a former Unilever marketing chief – and also Sam Oliver, Creative Director at Uncommon and former Creative Head at iPhone and iPad.

Johnny Pitt, Founder of The Creative Shootout comments; “Who knew so many people are living with epilepsy? The prejudices surrounding it in society and in the workplace are colossal. The Shootout will change this, through the incredible power and decency of the creativity community.”

Rebekah Smith, Deputy Chief Executive at Epilepsy Action comments: “We’re absolutely delighted to be chosen for the 2025 Creative Shootout. This offers us a fantastic opportunity to work with an incredible creative team to get epilepsy on the map and part of a national conversation. Time and time again we are told about the stigma and isolation that comes with an epilepsy diagnosis, and for the 630,000 people in the UK living with the condition it’s time for that to stop. We need help to
get this under resourced and rarely talked about condition the profile it deserves and make a real difference to the lives of people living with epilepsy.”

The 2025 Judging Panel (alphabetical order) includes:
Kim Allain – Associate Creative Director, Golin
Olivia Blairman – Managing Director, Coolr
Kate Brazier – Managing Director, The Romans
Nicky Bullard – Group Chief Creative Officer, MullenLowe Group UK
Daniel Fox-Evans – Creative Director, The Kitchen London (KraftHeinz)
Eric Fulwiler – Co-Founder and CEO, Rival
Johnny Pitt – Founder, Launch PR and The Creative Shootout
Harjot Singh – Global Chief Strategy Officer, McCann Worldgroup
Rebekah Smith – Deputy Chief Executive, Epilepsy Action
Tanya Whitehouse – CEO, ELVIS

The Creative Shootout is supported by the leading industry associations including The CIPR, IPA, DMA, The Advertising Association, IAB and thenetworkone.

For further information on how to enter, visit: www.creativeshootout.com