Two Kenyan designers scoop talent sponsorship to Las Vegas

Stephen Kiprono and Brian Njagi were the winners of the Kenya Creative Hackathon held at Nairobi Garage on Friday and Saturday.

The Creative Hackathon was a joint initiative of the Association of Practitioners in Advertising – Kenya, Creative LIAisons and East African Breweries Limited (EABL).

Sponsored by EABL’s Tusker brand, its objective is to mentor young creatives to reach their potential and the contestants worked on a brief on Tusker Lager.

Kiprono and Njagi are a motion designer and copywriter at KoKo Networks respectively, and they will attend the Creative LIAisons programme in Las Vegas, US, which runs from 5th - 8th October, 2019.

The programme is designed to provide young creatives with expertise, insight, professional relationships and networking opportunities.

The duo will be among 100 young creatives from around the world participating at this year’s programme and will get to attend free masterclasses and talks.

EABL’s Head of Media Futures and Digital, Waithera Kabiru, said the hackathon has provided useful insights on the talent amongst young creatives.

“We are excited to see the talent from this programme and we have picked up a few lessons here that can be replicated elsewhere. The winner will get to work on a project under the Tusker brand and we hope some stellar work will come out of that,” said Ms. Waithera.

“A hackathon is a brilliant way for young creatives to pit themselves against each other and we have seen here that the pressure, and the fact that they are working on their ideas on site and must come up with a product makes them come up with some exceptional work. This is like a microcosm of the real world of work,” she added.

Barbara Levy, President of LIA, described the Kenya Creative Hackathon as a success.

“This was like a condensed version of a pitch and there was a real sense of the energy and urgency in the same way that creative agencies go about the process of creating concepts. We are really excited to work with APA Kenya and EABL on this Hackathon and we are happy with what has come out of it. The pay-off is worth the sleepless nights,” she said.

APA’s Vice Chairman Sammy Thuo said the contest was close.

“We have had a good two days and our wish is to see more corporates taking part in hackathons like this. This is a good approach to work and we should consider doing this more often, and with support from the industry we can certainly have more of this being done,” said Mr Thuo.