On Wednesday, the 15^th of March, 23 students from the Management School joined students from 15 other northern universities in Stockport to take part in this annual event by Creative Resource. Each year at this event, students are put into groups with those from other universities to collaborate on a brief for the day-long event with the guidance of industry mentors from various creative industries. Almost 100 industry mentors were on-hand to guide students through this year’s brief provided by the client, the Stockport Council Climate Action Now: tackling the climate crisis in Stockport. On arrival, students are presented their brief by the Managing Director of Creative Resource and Founder of Two+Two UK, Julie Ollerton; the event sponsors, Monica Tailor, Global Director of Social Media for McCann Live and Paul Kinsella, Chief Creative Officer for Havas Health and You Europe; and this year’s clients who included Nicholas Leslie and Liz Atherton, leaders of Stockport Council’s Climate Action Now. The teams then set to work and the magic begins! With around five hours to work up their idea, they then have five minutes to pitch to a group of mentors to win their spot in the finals. The areas explored included fast fashion, saving electricity, food waste, and community gardening. Many teams focused on education and explored ways for both adults and children to be more environmentally conscious, advocating small changes to amount to a larger collective impact.

Our silver medal winner, Zahra, and her team pitched their idea around food consumption using the term “empty your fridge” to emphasise using all purchased food items, positively relating it to no food wastage. As their prize, they all got placement opportunities with Zeal Creative. Our bronze medal winner, Kalina, and her team focused on light usage and saving electricity to fight the climate crisis. Members of this team will spend a day with Havas Lynx Group attending talks, an office tour, and networking.

Reflecting on the event, Zahra said, “The Two+Two event was an absolutely incredible experience that exceeded my every expectation. I was terribly nervous as I had never done anything like this before but I’m so glad I did. Not only did I get the opportunity to work with other students from different universities collectively towards the fantastic brief, but I also was given the opportunity to learn so much from the brilliant mentors who were all so welcoming and helpful. Working with a group of strangers was initially daunting but the positive attitude of everyone there brought us together and motivated us to create a campaign that got us to the finals. To be able to present our ideas to all the other students and mentors as well as Stockport Council’s Climate Action Now team was such an exciting experience. I was so proud when, as a group, we won second place; it was such an amazing achievement! Overall, I have gained a tremendous amount through taking part in this brilliant opportunity and now have much more confidence in a workplace environment.“

Students from the LUMS Marketing department have been participating in Two+Two Uk since its inception six years ago. When reflecting on this, Vicky Metcalf, LUMS Careers Coach for Marketing, said, “There is no better way to experience the North West’s creative industries at their best or to tap into the creative minds of so many young people than Two+Two. This year’s brief was clearly a subject close to everyone’s hearts, and watching the energy and effort invested by each team was really very special. Our students always come away with some great experience and contacts but, most importantly, the enormous leap in self-belief and motivation are what really make the difference.”

Two+Two is a great opportunity granted to students from the Marketing department each year who are interested in the marketing and creative industry.

Find out more about LUMS’ Marketing department and our range of study options here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/our-departments/marketing/