• by Larissa Faw , September 14, 2016

Eight young advertising creatives have the chance to win a 30-day paid internship at a top ad agency. They’ll find out during Advertising Week in New York, which starts Sept. 26. 

The Big Ad Gig is entering its eighth year where prospective talent submit entries to be judged by a panel of notable industry executives. (A call for entries video from CP+B’s Chuck Porter can be seen here.

This year, the 2016 Big Ad Gig judges panel includes: Lynn Power, CEO, JWT NY, Collen DeCourcy, Global co-executive creative director, Partner, Wieden + Kennedy, Corinna Falusi, chief creative officer, Ogilvy New York, Keith Cartwright, ECD, Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, Matt Jarvis, partner/chief strategy office 72andSunny, Ralph Watson, chief creative officer for CP+B Boulder, Jaime Robinson, co-founder/chief creative officer Joan, Will McGuiness, partner, executive creative director, Venablesbell, and Heidi Arthur, SVP for Campaigns, The Advertising Council. 

Social media is playing a heightened role this year. Many of the past winners found out about The Big Ad Gig through social channels, specifically Twitter. Thus, the program is going where the prospects are by giving them the chance to apply the minute they see the brief by simply replying to a tweet. 

The briefs will come from the judges in form of short 15- second videos. Each one will be different and the requests will range from writing a tagline to directing a six-second spot on Vine. Candidates are required to submit a solution and portfolio all within a tweet. 

The competition will culminate with a live event on September 29th during Advertising Week, at The New York Times Building hosted by Stuart Elliott, former New York Times Advertising Columnist.  

At the end of the event, five finalists will be awarded 30–day paid art director or copywriter positions at one of the participating agencies. One winning campaign will be produced and run on various advertising platforms including mobile, gaming and online. 

The program has proven to be successful. Some 45 of the past 48 Big Ad Gig finalists are working full time at leading agencies nationwide.