Panasonic’s Next Generation Talent Competition

To kick start its campaign for the new Viera Home Hub TV, Panasonic has teamed up with Young Creatives Network to challenge students across the UK to create a film, storyboard or print ad telling the story of the new Panasonic Viera Home Hub TV. Read the brief here.

Among the many entries, six were short listed last night by a panel of “social media, advertising and tech experts,” a panel which for some crazy reason included me. But don’t worry too much because the rest of the panel were super topnotch expert-y peeps:

- Head of Advertising at Panasonic, John Dixon;
- Beri Cheetham, Creative Director for Billington Cartmell;
- Oli Christie, Creative Director at Inbox digital agency;
- Rich Trenholm, reviewer for technology news site CNET;

- Willem van der Horst, digital strategist for Ice Cream 4 Everyone;
- Social media and tech expert Ged Carroll;
- Guillaume Foutry, social media and photographer/design blogger;
- James from advertising and design site Spinning Around;
- Vice Magazine's Alice Judge-Talbot, an alternative culture and trend spotter magazine; and
- Matt Gierhart of advertising and creative sites Josh Spear and mattgierhart.com.

Very cool. Thanks to Panasonic, Young Creatives Network and PR agency onlinefire (hey Melanie!) for including me. As judges, we were given the very fun and somewhat challenging task of choosing the six pieces we deemed worthy of winning £6000 of Panasonic gear and perhaps playing a role in Panasonic's Viera campaign.

But enough about us! Here’s where you come in: The final winner is to be decided by the general public (that means YOU). View all six and vote for your favourite online (and become eligible to win a Panasonic S7 camcorder!). The voting is on now and continues until midnight tomorrow (Wednesday the 10th). The winner will be announced Thursday morning on the Next Generation Talent website.