The Brand Challenge is an annual Vega event in which teams of second and third year, and honours students, come together to form agencies and create concepts for actual clients such as ABSA, Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital, and Mr Price. The initiative is run at all four Vega campuses across South Africa and lasts for five weeks.

According to Alex Sudheim, a Vega Cape Town senior copywriting lecturer, the purpose of the challenge is to afford students the opportunity to form simulated consultancy firms that undertake real-life industry briefs from external organisations. “It is important to note while these may be ‘simulated’ consultancy firms, Brand Challenge is a very real academic experience. These briefs are from paying clients who expect top-notch, industry-level brand communication solutions from their student agencies. Since the clients are paying, they own the intellectual property of the work created by students and often implement it in their actual brand communications.”

“The programme presents a practical 360° view of a complex brand situation, grouping students into multi-disciplinary teams in order to identify the key brand challenges. Taking real-life industry briefs from twelve different external organisations, the teams conduct a full brand analysis and extensive research to determine key issues impacting the brands. The students identify key stakeholders in order to develop and execute original and meaningful communications campaigns for the specific client,” says Sudheim.

“The standard of work delivered from the students is so high that several of these clients return year after year to partake in the Vega Brand Challenges and some actually implement the concepts presented by the students,” adds Sudheim.

Some of the brands participating in this year's Challenge include Rage Festival (together with Vega Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban), Zailab Software, Martell Cognac, ABSA Bank, Simodisa (Entrepreneur NGO), PASCAP, Life & Style Media, Olmeca Tequila, Gangstar Clothing, Sexy Food, and the Foschini Group.

“Brand Challenge is central to the ethos of Vega since, in order to graduate, students who are industry-ready, it is imperative that they are exposed to industry realities as part of their academic journey. Working in an interdisciplinary team distinctively branded as a real-life consultancy and tackling real-time briefs from real-world clients is an invaluable experience for students in terms of gaining first-hand experience of what is expected of them in the industry they are about to enter. It furthermore has the advantage of allowing prospective employers to accurately gauge a student’s ability to operate on the professional levels expected of the brand communication industry,” says Sudheim.

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