afaqs! announces The SkunkWorks Challenge

How does being locked in a room with a digital marketing brief and a likeminded digital expert for 24 hours sound? If you're smiling and nodding, read on to know more about afaqs!'s latest initiative 'The SkunkWorks Challenge'. Last date for registration is July 8.

Attention, digital whiz kids!. afaqs! announces the launch of The SkunkWorks Challenge, a unique competition for digital professionals and experts. For this, afaqs! has partnered with The Times of India, the brand that will provide the first digital challenge to the participants. Through this exercise, the brand team is keen on finding digital solutions for its Lead India Programme.

First of all, what's a 'SkunkWorks'? A 'Skunkworks' is a small group of people who work on a project in an unconventional way. To what end, you ask? - To develop something innovative, quickly, with minimal management constraints.

So, how will this work? After a quick shortlisting process, the final participants will be divided into 10 teams. Each team will have a maximum of two participants. The teams will then be given a brief to work on. This brief will be related to digital media or digital marketing. The teams will be locked away for 24 hours at a venue provided by the organisers of this challenge, during which they will ideate and brainstorm for digital solutions to the given brief.

You may participate as an organisation or as an individual. The shortlisted teams will be informed so on July 11 and will be briefed on July 14 by our jury members. Once the teams have worked on the brief for 24 hours, they will be required to present their ideas and solutions to the jury on July 15 at Alliance Francaise at New Delhi's Lodhi Estate. The jury will select the winning idea that stands to fetch cash prizes worth Rs 1,00,000.

The winning team will also be given the opportunity to execute its idea in the real world; the team members will get a chance to work with The Times of India on this specific digital campaign.

The objective of this partnership, says Rahul Kansal, executive president, Bennett, Coleman and Co. (Times Group), is to meet some bright people and access their brilliant digital ideas.

"The best talent may not necessarily reside with the large, well-established digital outfits. There are many youngsters in their twenties who have great digital ideas. They are digital natives and have grown up being part of the social media framework," he says.

According to Kansal, the "pressure cooker environment" that the participants will be subjected to will help bring out the best in them. And he speaks from experience; during his agency days, he found overnight workshops and similar events very conducive to creativity. "The best ideas, I recall, came in a flash in such experimental environments," he says.

So, does he see a competition like this challenging the traditional pitch template that agencies have been following for decades? He is of the view that events such as these are ideal for finding firepower digital ideas and solutions while regular pitches are better when it comes to selecting a long-term agency partner.

For registration and more information visit: http://www.skunkworkschallenge.com. The last date for registration is July 8.