ACC Guidelines
Understanding the capstone challenge
ACC Guidelines
Understanding the capstone challenge
What is the advertising capstone challenge?
- The advertising capstone challenge (ACC) is a team-based student competition through which students take on an authentic creative advertising business challenge and competitively pitch fully-fledged campaigns to real-world clients.
- The competition is usually run between August and October each year and is open to higher education institutions in Australia, and New Zealand that offer advanced courses and preferably minors or majors in advertising.
- Educational institutions must be undergraduate degree awarding institutions (e.g. universities, colleges, institutes of higher education) that offer a capstone or capstone equivalent unit of study at either 2nd or 3rd year in an undergraduate degree program.
- Work submitted as part of the ACC must be original i.e. created and authored by the students participating. Student teams cannot hire, or sub-contract elements of work required to anyone else, nor draw on their academic supervisors/lecturers for anything more than the usual guidance and feedback provided in courses of this nature.
- Student teams participating in the ACC must be made up of a minimum of four students, and maximum of six students. Most years, most teams are 5 person teams.
- Student teams and their supervisors will be supplied with a clear and full briefing in an authentic real-world format, as well as an a ‘live brief’ from the client and advertising agency partner.
- The client, and advertising agency partner change each year.
- Each educational institution undertaking the challenge, after a series of internal competitive rounds of pitching, nominates their two best student teams from their capstone cohort to travel to the ACC Finals at the end of October each year.
- The ACC Finals is a ‘live pitch’ event run at the end of October each year’s competition. This is normally held at the offices of the advertising agency partner which has historically moved between Melbourne, and Sydney in Australia. Future ACC Finals may move to other cities, if agency partners and clients can be secured in other cities and locations.
- At the ACC Finals students are awarded prizes which may include certificates, trophies, internships, mentorships, and access to industry professional learning programs. The exact type and range of awards and recognition certification are subject to change each year.
Who manages the advertising capstone challenge?
- The ACC is managed by its education partners.
- As of 2024, this includes Swinburne University of Technology, Western Sydney University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Auckland University of Technology.
- There is no cost for an educational institution to join the ACC. However:
- Educational institutions must secure the approval of the management committee.
- The 2024 ACC Director is David Reid
- The 2025 ACC Director is John Greig
- To participate, there should be at a minimum one academic lead mentoring students through course work, and attending the ACC ‘live brief’, but each educational partner can (should they choose) support student learning with additional academic and/or industry mentors.
- Ideally, the ‘live brief’ which is offered as part of the ACC must be integrated within the curriculum (i.e. it is not designed as an extracurricular activity) of the capstone course. This means the teamwork is graded and forms part of students’ marks.
- The cost of academic/student travel/ accommodation to the ACC Finals must be met by the educational institution engaged in the competition.
- Educational institutions must secure the approval of the management committee.
- An educational institution interested in joining ACC should ideally have an advertising major (or minor), but the ACC management committee can consider educational partners delivering programs in associated disciplines, such as marketing, strategic communications, public relations, design or integrated marketing communications.
- Each educational institution engaged in the ACC is required to:
- Nominate their capstone academic to the ACC management committee.
- Ensure that the student’s campaign submissions and ideas presented to the client are available for the client to draw on and use, at no cost to the client or agency, i.e. align or allow exceptions to Institutional Intellectual property frameworks to allow this. N.b. Clients using student ideas is not common, but it is one of many reasons why agencies/clients come on board for ACC. Agencies and clients will retain the option to pay for any IP they wish to use, but the default is that they can draw on any ideas and concepts presented by the student in subsequent campaigns. This condition must be clearly communicated to students and be accepted the institutions.
- Ensure their students are covered in full for Insurance purposes in relation to work-integrated learning. Should any student team representing their institution win the competition then it is expected all student members of that team will undertake an internship at the partner advertising agency.
Endorsed by the ACC Management Committee – 26 July 2024
What is the advertising capstone challenge?
- The advertising capstone challenge (ACC) is a team-based student competition through which students take on an authentic creative advertising business challenge and competitively pitch fully-fledged campaigns to real-world clients.
- The competition is usually run between August and October each year and is open to higher education institutions in Australia, and New Zealand that offer advanced courses and preferably minors or majors in advertising
- Educational institutions must be undergraduate degree awarding institutions (e.g. universities, colleges, institutes of higher education) that offer a capstone or capstone equivalent unit of study at either 2nd or 3rd year in an undergraduate degree program.
- Work submitted as part of the ACC must be original i.e. created and authored by the students participating. Student teams cannot hire, or sub-contract elements of work required to anyone else, nor draw on their academic supervisors/lecturers for anything more than the usual guidance and feedback provided in courses of this nature.
- Student teams participating in the ACC must be made up of a minimum of four students, and maximum of six students. Most years, most teams are 5 person teams.
- Student teams and their supervisors will be supplied with a clear and full briefing in an authentic real-world format, as well as an a ‘live brief’ from the client and advertising agency partner.
- The client, and advertising agency partner change each year.
- Each educational institution undertaking the challenge, after a series of internal competitive rounds of pitching, nominates their two best student teams from their capstone cohort to travel to the ACC Finals at the end of October each year.
- The ACC Finals is a ‘live pitch’ event run at the end of October each year’s competition. This is normally held at the offices of the advertising agency partner which has historically moved between Melbourne, and Sydney in Australia. Future ACC Finals may move to other cities, if agency partners and clients can be secured in other cities and locations.
- At the ACC Finals students are awarded prizes which may include certificates, trophies, internships, mentorships, and access to industry professional learning programs. The exact type and range of awards and recognition certification are subject to change each year.
Who manages the advertising capstone challenge?
- The ACC is managed by its education partners.
- As of 2024, this includes Swinburne University of Technology, Western Sydney University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Auckland University of Technology.
- There is no cost for an educational institution to join the ACC. However:
- Educational institutions must secure the approval of the management committee.
- The 2024 ACC Director is David Reid
- The 2025 ACC Director is John Greig
- To participate, there should be at a minimum one academic lead mentoring students through course work, and attending the ACC ‘live brief’, but each educational partner can (should they choose) support student learning with additional academic and/or industry mentors.
- Ideally, the ‘live brief’ which is offered as part of the ACC must be integrated within the curriculum (i.e. it is not designed as an extracurricular activity) of the capstone course. This means the teamwork is graded and forms part of students’ marks.
- The cost of academic/student travel/ accommodation to the ACC Finals must be met by the educational institution engaged in the competition.
- Educational institutions must secure the approval of the management committee.
- An educational institution interested in joining ACC should ideally have an advertising major (or minor), but the ACC management committee can consider educational partners delivering programs in associated disciplines, such as marketing, strategic communications, public relations, design or integrated marketing communications.
- Each educational institution engaged in the ACC is required to:
- Nominate their capstone academic to the ACC management committee.
- Ensure that the student’s campaign submissions and ideas presented to the client are available for the client to draw on and use, at no cost to the client or agency, i.e. align or allow exceptions to Institutional Intellectual property frameworks to allow this. N.b. Clients using student ideas is not common, but it is one of many reasons why agencies/clients come on board for ACC. Agencies and clients will retain the option to pay for any IP they wish to use, but the default is that they can draw on any ideas and concepts presented by the student in subsequent campaigns. This condition must be clearly communicated to students and be accepted the institutions.
- Ensure their students are covered in full for Insurance purposes in relation to work-integrated learning. Should any student team representing their institution win the competition then it is expected all student members of that team will undertake an internship at the partner advertising agency.