Jumpstart, Advertising Council Australia WA’s grad program, continues to deliver rising stars

Advertising Council Australia’s WA graduate program JumpStart concluded last Friday, with student’s final pitch presentations held at Wunderman Thompson, bringing 2022 to a close.

Since its inception nearly 10 years ago, JumpStart provides participants with a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of some of Perth’s top advertising agencies, to get a better understanding of various roles that exist, and make a more informed decision about where they would like to work.

On the final day of the program, students were broken into four groups and sent to mentor agencies Rare, Marketforce, 303MullenLowe and Wunderman Thompson to pull their first pitch presentation together, with only five hours to prepare.

Steel Blue Chief Marketing Officer Jocelyn Da Silva and Marketing Manager Michael Ellis played the role of the client and when “time was up” they were joined by a panel of industry-leading judges to watch the student’s pitch presentations, provide feedback and undertake the impossible task of determining a winning group.

Judges included Wunderman Thompson General Manager Damiano Di Pietro, Gatecrasher Managing Director Tony Scampoli, and Trilogy Strategic Brand Manager Lisa Thom.

The standard of the presentations were deemed exceptional and the judges said that deciding on a winning group was near impossible, but Henry Malkovic, Emily Blott, Elise Elms and Harvey Clarke-Smith took out first place – all mentored by Marketforce Client Director Beth Christie.

Special recognition was also given to Emily Blott, who came away as the individual winner on the day, and to Centaine Scott – the recipient of the JumpStart Consistent Achiever award.

“The future of advertising is looking bright!” said Steel Blue’s Jocelyn Da Silva. “JumpStart is an incredibly unique program that gives students a chance to gain valuable and practical insight into the WA advertising industry and we loved the fact that we (and our agency) were involved this year.”

Advertising Council Australia WA State Manager, Melissa Vella, said: “JumpStart would not be possible without ACA member agencies such as Creative.adm, Trilogy, 303 Mullen Lowe, Rare, Wunderman Thompson, Marketforce, Gatecrasher and Beautiful Pictures, who all invest money, time and effort to support the industry’s future talent. A big thanks for their hard work.”

“The JumpStart program is beneficial to the participants, the agencies and the broader industry, and it’s hugely rewarding for me to carry on the legacy of such an important, successful program. Many of the brightest stars at Perth’s ad agencies have come from JumpStart and there’s no doubt that this year’s graduating class will go on to become industry stars too.”