Often, the first think people shoot at you when at ad-contest is finished is the peculiar question “Did you win?”. And whilst it is questionable whether winning is key to a competition, it sort of makes the rest look less valuable. Besides, it kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth to say you didn’t win. On top of that, it makes us advertisers look like some prize-obsessed industry. I don’t like that part of it. Also, Stefan and I recently won a competition and suddenly there’s a lot more people talking to us, as if we suddenly mean something. We’re still the same guys.

It’s Charlie Sheen who keeps talking about this “winning”, but I’m gonna go with Luke Sullivan, who said: “Let the fun be in the chase.”

And fun we had. From Friday to Saturday we participated in the 24 hour pitch, organised by Jongehonden. Stefan and I where still thrilled about founding out we could take part, cause we only heard that the day before. The moment of stepping into that building, filled with young creatives, getting free food and free drinks. After hearing all the ‘grand tales’ from other participants about New York, London or other great places and agencies they’ve been too, I had the impeccable feeling I was still quite a novice to this, despite having invested quite some time myself as well.

The 24 hours where great. The fatigue feeling, the “shall I sleep or not” dilemma, the chats with people I didn’t know, the midnight walks, the matches of table football which I lost 2-10, the laughs people gave me about my old Toshiba laptop and of course the staring done at my computer screen, blank sheets of paper, the window and the ceiling.

After 24 hours I felt quite “attached” to our folding desk and our bemudded sofa, so I write this post with a great matter of ‘homesickness’. It’s madness when you think about it, coming up with a concept within 24 straight hours, with 23 other teams, but anything seems to be possible in this industry. Love it. And we hope to be participating again next year! 😉

Thanks Jongehonden for this awesome event and congratulations to the winners!

Some impressions:

Read more:
http://www.jongehonden.nl/
http://www.youngcreatives.com/netherlands/