Worldwide Partners Announces Shortlist for Young Indies Awards

Worldwide Partners (WPI), one of the world’s fastest-growing networks of independent agencies, has announced the finalists of their 2024 Young Indies Awards. 

The Young Indies is a new creative competition this year, calling on employees at Worldwide Partners independent agencies around the world. The agencies assembled teams of employees with eight years of experience or less, who were tasked with answering a creative brief within 72 hours to solve a problem for a global non-profit – charity: water.

charity: water was an ideal organiSation for this competition. As a global non-profit committed to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people around the world, their global reach and impact is something that every WPI agency employee, regardless of location, can get behind. Their radically transparent model, which uses 100% of public donations to fund clean water, and use of innovative technology resonates deeply with the next generation who value visibility, honesty, and ingenuity. And they were already familiar with the Worldwide Partners network – Colorado, USA-based Delve Deeper, a performance media agency, worked with charity: water in 2023.

While the ideas submitted for the Young Indies were hypothetical, the challenge was very real. The winning work will be executed in the future by charity: water to support their efforts to bring clean water to communities around the world, and OOH provider Billups has donated digital out-of-home placement for the winning work in Times Square in New York City, USA. 

There were 23 total entries to the Young Indies this year from 15 different WPI agencies in 11 different countries. The awards were judged by a global panel of industry experts, which included the marketing team at charity: water. 

Following are the top five shortlisted campaigns:

Catching a Killer: Lethal Liquid

Submitting Agency: Pluto (Ireland)

Submitting Team: Susan McGing, Creative Copywriter | Luz Estevan, Art Director

THE IDEA 

Present dirty water as what it is: the world’s most lethal killer.

Through documentary-style content modelled after popular true crime films and series, this campaign will uncover the truth about the “world’s most notorious serial killer” and urge our audience to join the fight to bring it to justice. Only with their help can we expose this threat to the world and encourage support for charity: water, who are working to catch this killer and rid the world of this threat once and for all.

Campaign expansion includes: OOH, digital, and a special true crime-style episode on Netflix with charity: water representatives speaking about their efforts to catch the deadly killer, Dirty Water. 

The Dry Pledge

Submitting Agency: LG2 (Canada)

Submitting Team: Léa-Laure Bergeron, art director | Jean-Christophe Diaque, copywriter | Roxanne Pelletier, copywriter 

THE IDEA

The Dry Pledge

Dry January is a movement where people abstain from alcohol for the entire month of January. The popularity of the initiative among young professionals provides a unique opportunity to introduce the issue of clean water access to a socially conscious audience.

By aligning with an already widespread cultural movement, The Dry Pledge will offer a sustainable solution to expand the reach of charity: water, not just for a one-time splashy stunt but for many years to come. It will not only raise awareness but also create new avenues for fundraising.

The Dry Pledge, taking place during Dry January, encourages individuals to donate a portion of the money they would typically spend on alcohol to charity: water. 

Campaign expansion includes: billboards to raise awareness to encourage participation; a landing page providing a social media toolkit for individuals to showcase their participation; and PR push and partnerships with relevant celebrities and brands to announce their participation and/or donations.

Give Women Their Time Back

Submitting Agency: Rosbeef! (France)

Submitting Team: Yacine Hamza, artistic director and creative | Juliette Capdevielle, artistic director and creative | Alice Vanlerberghe, strategic planner

THE IDEA

The Slowest Vending Machine

Our time is precious, and so is everyone’s. That’s why our vending machine is offering free water...if you wait six hours.

The timing matches a real walk to water:

• Users can see the bottle moving out of the machine according to an accurate itinerary line, from home to the closest water point.
  
• Every bottle features a portrait and shares the story of a real woman who has to travel this itinerary every day.
  

The machine offers an option for a donation, which will accelerate the bottle’s fall.

By playing with people’s time habits in everyday life, the experience is the perfect illustration of charity: water actions: bringing water closer to women, in order to give them their time back.

The vending machine is placed on a crowded street, with a charity: water street team nearby in bright yellow branded gear. The entire consumer journey is captured on camera and edited into a short video case that can easily be shared across social media.

Campaign expansion includes: the option to send empty bottles to press or influencers; short social video assets focusing on portraying women who have benefited from charity: water and how they now spend their time; billboards with a map design that evolves with time passing thanks to sunlight, like a sundial, showing a walking woman’s journey from home to water source. 

Talk Dirty to Me?

Submitting Agency: Ardmore (Northern Ireland)

Submitting Team: Tory Anderson, senior media manager | Jack Blaney, junior designer

THE IDEA

Talk Dirty To Me? Talk Clean to me?

42% of 18-34’s say they care about the environment, but the reality is they are more inclined to celebrate the Succession finale than to celebrate earth day- so do they really care? (GWI, 2024). We needed an idea to help charity: water disrupt 18-34’s to help them realise not everyone has access to clean water .So where does this audience congregate…?  

Tinder. GWI puts the size of the 18-34’s population at 310.2 million. According to Dating Zest, the number of users on Tinder in 2023 hit 75 million, 83% of which are aged between 18 and 34. Daily, there are 2 billion swipes are registered every day on Tinder and over 50 million matches. So, we would be foolish not to take advantage and disrupt the conversation with some good old dirty clean talk. 

The Idea: charity: water Tinder partnership, with one day charity:water Tinder takeover. Talk Dirty To Me? Talk Clean to me? Messaging that catches the attention of the audience changing the narrative of what conversations might normally go on in Tinder, in a smart and playful manner. Using a well well-known phrase and flipping the ask to do the opposite in a way that is in line with charity: water’s goal to start conversations, raise awareness, and bring everyone in the world clean safe water.

Campaign expansion includes: the live number of clean talks shared will dynamically pull into the OOH placement in Times Square; Wild Poster advertising throughout major cities around the world and near public transport hubs to encourage swiping while commuting; and paid aids on Tinder and social media.

Time Well Wasted

Submitting Agency: Five by Five (Australia)

Submitting Team: Rebecca Worley, copywriter | Sian Bedford, designer 

THE IDEA

Phil the Cup

A personified cup of clean water who becomes the face of the campaign – and our puzzle-based mobile game. At every level, players need to work out how to ‘Phil’ up the cup with clean drinking water.

After each level, the player will get a bite-sized message about the issue of clean drinking water, and how charity: water is helping tackle the problem.

At the end, we will prompt the player to share the game with friends and ask if they would like to make a small donation.

Launching on World Water Day (22nd March), the campaign will take over places that people commonly need to kill time, like bus stops and train stations, and interrupt the places they’re already wasting time, like Instagram and TikTok.

Campaign expansion includes: playable billboards, accessed once the user makes a contactless donation; limited edition Stanley cup featuring “Phil” with a percentage of proceeds going to charity: water. 

The winner will be announced on May 16th, 2024, at our Comunidad24 Global Summit in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Good luck to these finalists, and stay tuned to learn who takes home the top award!