Decade’s worth of advertising has witnessed some truly groundbreaking ideas. But with so many campaigns launched over the years, students can’t possibly know them all before landing their first job. Aside from big, bulky advertising annuals, there is nothing out there that gives students a quick reference of the industry’s best ideas of all time. So we asked ourselves a simple question: How can we present timeless ideas to a generation that always live “in the now” and need to be constantly entertained? Our idea had to not only be engaging, but also inspire students to come up with the next game-changing idea themselves. We recognise that it’s the students of today that will inherit the creative landscape, and one day, become the industry’s next creative leaders. After all, they can only change the game when they know what the benchmark is.

We created M.AD Game Changers – an educational “Top Trump” style card game for students across the world today. The convenient pocket-sized deck contains 32 of the industry’s best ideas of all time. Each card (idea) has a short intro as well as a recognisable key visual from the past campaign for students to not only familiarise themselves with, but also memorise. To make the game playable, we carefully selected five categories and rated them on a scale from 1-10: “Could win a Grand Prix today”, “A behaviour changer”, “Brand-building material”, “Worth sharing with non-ad friends”, and “Belongs in the MoMa”. Alongside the physical game, we also launched a microsite with the final campaign’s case studies, further insight into the ideas, as well as a downloadable version of the game for people to print out the deck.

To create the game, first we reached out to Miami Ad School’s alumni – some of the leading industry professionals of today, asking for their top 10 ideas of all time. The one’s they wished they had done. After receiving hundreds of entries and carefully narrowing the selection down to 32, we did something unprecedented – inviting current M.AD students across the world to judge the campaigns, LIVE. It resulted in over 300 students voting on each idea under our pre-determined categories, just like real jurors do. These scores then gave birth to the M.AD Game Changers card game, which was distributed globally across 23 countries.

The campaign was a global collaboration of Miami Ad Schools and M.AD alumni across the world. M.AD industry leaders gave us hundreds of campaigns that they consider to be the best of all time, then we asked over 300 current M.AD students to vote on the selection under the pre-established criteria. This gave birth to M.AD Game Changers – a game that was distributed globally across 23 countries. In order to successfully launch the campaign, we held a digital party for participants across the globe where the campaign’s original guest speakers and M.AD Alumni gave insight as to how their ideas came to be – a way for M.AD students to brush shoulders with some of the industry’s most influential thinkers before landing their first job in the industry. We also launched an accompanying social media campaign to generate further campaign awareness and drive traffic to the campaign’s landing page.

As our game was distributed in over 23 countries worldwide, it positioned Miami Ad School as a global educational pioneer of idea generation, putting them at top of mind when students are looking to join an ad school. It also proved that the students who graduate from Miami Ad School go on to lead successful careers in the industry. We earned thousands of hits to the microsite, giving visitors a reference to some of the greatest ideas the industry has ever seen. 300 student jurors experienced a valuable opportunity to be part of a jury, giving them a taste of the industry, even as a student. After all, it’s the younger generation who will inherit the creative landscape, and one day, become the industry’s next creative leaders. Therefore, it’s essential they know what the benchmark is so that they can come up with the next game-changing idea themselves.