De Volkskrant Creative Press Challenge is an annual competition to inspire creatives about the power of print, and de Volkskrant, as an advertising stage. Creatives can (in)directly influence medium choice in advertising campaigns, so it’s important for de Volkskrant to build strong relationships with them.

The competition challenges creatives to go back to the core, by proving how pure an idea can be in print. Every year the editorial board of de Volkskrant chooses a different charity that fits their identity. In 2013 creatives were asked to distill Free Press Unlimited’s identity in a single print ad. They entered a black marker sketch, so the power of their idea could be judged.

The chief editor of de Volkskrant invited creative directors of the Netherlands’ top advertising agencies to select their best (young) talent to join the competition. A beautiful launch video was made and viewed over 3.000 times. A grand jury – with creative directors from Sid Lee, Wieden + Kennedy and Dawn – chose the winner, who was called up on stage at the 24 Hours of Advertising, the Netherlands’ largest event for the creative industry.

The prize is fame, not an award. The winning entry was placed in de Volkskrant, together with an exclusive interview, and sent in to Cannes. 50 creative teams joined and entered their work, doubling our expectations. The competition also won a lot of free publicity in (inter)national media,and has set a solid basis for de Volkskrant to build strong relationships with advertising agencies.

June: Launch Creative Press Challenge with press release, video and site

September: Agency shortlist publication and announcement of the jury members. Invitation sent to creative directors of the Netherlands’ most renowned advertising agencies, containing test-tubes with a unique participation code. They were asked to select their best (young) talent to join the competition.

October: Kick-off drinks for participants, where they received their briefing and got to meet the chief-editor of de Volkskrant and the CEO of the charity they were going to work for. Participants got 3 weeks to enter their work.

November: Judging of 50 entries and the announcement of the winner at the 24 Hours of Advertising, the Netherlands' largest annual event for the creative industry.

December: Placement of winning entry in de Volkskrant, together with an exclusive interview with the winning team.

Newsletters were sent in July, September, October and November. The campaign ran according to plan.

The first edition of the Creative Press Challenge was a huge success. Double the expected amount of creative teams joined the competition. The amount of (inter)national free publicity was overwhelming. Awareness for print advertising and de Volkskrant was created within the creative industry.

- 100 creatives (50 teams) joined the competition (goal: 25)

- 30 wildcard requests (goal: 25)

- over 100 people came to kick-off drinks (goal: 50)

- 55 qualitative article placements from free publicity (goal: 20)

- over 100 social media posts (goal: 50)

- 3.300 completed video views (goal: 500)

- 760 unique visitors per month on average on creativepresschallenge.com (goal: 250)

- 1.340 unique pageviews per month on average (goal: 750)

- 4 minutes and 43 seconds average time on site (goal: 4 minutes)

- ADCN Lamp for Art Direction, thé creative award in the Netherlands