European advertising’s up-and-coming creative minds have been plotting how to get themselves to Barcelona, through these innovative crowd-funding techniques.

Each year, the Art Directors Clubs from around Europe choose a team to represent their country at ADCE Awards Judging in Barcelona and become a Junior Juror – judging creative work alongside industry royalty. But getting to this point requires creativity and problem solving, through The Greatness Challenge.

Each team is tasked with creating a project to finance their transport, accommodation and expenses for the trip. Every year there are surprises, laughs and shocks from the audacious solutions these young creatives come up with. And 2018 was no different.

Don’t believe us, watch the five entries and see for yourself:

Greatness Challenge Winner: ADBET

Mariia Dorokhina and Iryna Blinova from Aimbulance in Ukraine created a platform to enable people to bet on the outcome of the ADCE Judging. By encouraging enough people to bet on the different winners of the Awards, they have created the opportunity for them to witness the decisions being made themselves.

Matjan Kreus

Swiss team Mathias Kröbl and Jan Theus invented a fictional colleague by combining their identities to create ‘Matjan Kreus’. Kreus was given an online presence, including being listed on the agency Publicis’ website. When it was announced that he would be leaving the agency, everyone came forward to raise money for his leaving gift: enough to fund travel to Barcelona!

Instasupport

The team from Portugal, Cláudio Soares and Patrícia Cordeiro, were inspired by the rise of influencer marketing. They decided to turn their own Instagram accounts into a fundraising platform by convincing their agencies Big Fish and JWT Lisboa, and their clients, to sponsor posts of their trip to the ADCE Festival.

The Grand Creative Kidnap Case

World class creative directors rarely visit Latvia for lectures, so the local team of Nadīne Plinta and Klinta Verbele decided to kidnap one from the ADCE Festival, and bring them home. The team, from Not Perfect Riga Y&R used classic techniques, such as blackmail and ransom notes to convince the agencies from their home country to fund their trip. So, if you’re a judge at the ADCE Festival… watch out, you might be in for a trip to Latvia soon!

Dream Drop Campaign

Martina Rebecca Ateri of White, Red & Green Milano and Valentina Pedrotti POLI.Design in Italy were inspired by the people who throw coins into Rome’s Trevi Fountain. They decided to take the tradition online – the world’s first digital wishing fountain. By simply allowing people to purchase digital coins and make online wishes, they raised enough cash for their own wish to come true – a trip to ADCE Festival in Barcelona.

Keep an eye on these creative teams as they go from strength-to-strength. The ADCE Festival in Barcelona may be the first time you’ve heard of them, but it won’t be the last. Greatness awaits.