Reply Creative Challenge 2020: Team Trecento11 Wins Europe's Greatest Creative Challenge for Students and Young Creatives from all over the World

8 July 2020

With the project “Proud to share” Team Trecento11 secured the victory of the 2020 edition of the Creative Challenge, the largest competition in Europe for students and young creatives organized by Reply and part of the online team-based series of competitions, Reply Challenges.

Launched last May 22nd with the online qualification marathon (running 48h), the challenge gathered over 6,200 creative talents (+77% vs. 2019 edition) from more than 70 countries around the World to focus their creative efforts on five categories: Employer Branding, Brand Activation, Service Design, Branded Content and Social Media: Instagram.

Spread across over 1,000 teams, the young talents - with an average age between 18 and 29 - put their skills and personalities into the development of a creative concept based on a brief assigned by some of the most renowned marketing and communication professionals in Europe.

This year's challenge was characterized by the need to rethink consumer engagement strategies to respond to the spread of the pandemic. During the development of the projects explicit references to the events of the past few months were made, with numerous proposals focused on the restart.

Of the 500+ proposals submitted it was the projects “Proud to share” (for Martini) , “Work for Zero” (for MSC), “Remember your Nature” (for FCA), “Scrambler Ducati Experience Fest” (for Ducati Scrambler) and “Meetisto” for (OBI), that were praised most highly for their level of innovation and overall quality. As a result the teams Brian, Glamour, S57, Trecento11 and Lavor progressed to the final round, during which they had the opportunity to exhibit their concepts to an exceptional jury composed of the Art and Creative Directors of Reply agencies (Avvio Reply, Bitmama, Open Reply, Triplesense Reply, Xister Reply) and the Brand Partners of the initiative: Ducati Scrambler, FCA, Martini, MSC Cruises and OBI.

Live streamed on Facebook and YouTube, the presentations were judged on a combination of elements and skills including the adherence to the briefs assigned and the highly original materials produced. Team Trecento11 finished top of the podium, presenting an idea for Brand Activation focused on concepts of sharing experiences and enhancing interpersonal relationships in a time when the aperitif is increasingly "digital" compared to the past and the typical physicality of the moment.

Team Trecento11 brought together 91 years of creative experience and 311 kilometres of distance between its four members: Gianluca Sebastiani (23 years old), Ivan Morra (23 years old), Michael Grego (22 years old) and Michele Gionta (23 years old). Hence the "creative" origin of the team's naming, with the team commenting: "Working during the lockdown imposed a lot of limits on us. With 311 km between us we had to work on video calls and it wasn't easy to manage everything remotely, from brainstorming to crafting, to thinking about feasible activation during a pandemic. However, limits often stimulate creativity and that's what happened with #ProudToShare".

The Creative Challenge is part of the Reply Challenges 2020 competition series organized by Reply for young students, talents and technology enthusiasts to promote the culture of coding and stimulate digital innovation in the fields of creativity, cybersecurity and finance.

To find out more about the Creative Challenge 2020 please visit challenges.reply.com.