ONE of the UK’s leading digital advertising partnerships has set up a marketing competition in support of a charity for the homeless.

1XL, which represents more than 800 local news sites, including Newsquest’s Telegraph & Argus, has teamed up with the Creative Shootout, the awards for the creative industry, to launch The Creative Shootout 2018.

Formed by a partnership between 30 of the UK’s longest-established regional news publishers including Newsquest, Johnston Press and Archant, 1XL is the UK’s largest source of premium digital news media audience.

The competition is open to agency teams from any marketing discipline across the UK. The winning agency will receive a £250,000 media prize fund from 1XL to help stage its campaign, as well as £30,000 in fees from Charity of the Year, FareShare, the UK’s largest food re-distribution charity. Responsible for feeding half a million people a week, FareShare re-distributes good, surplus food to more than 6,700 frontline charities and community groups.

Creative Shootout Founder Johnny Pitt said: “The Shootout came from a simple place; namely, that creativity needs to be celebrated and showcased better. It’s ripped up the awards rulebook in the process, nurturing and showcasing the best creative talent out there, in a radical and real time format – and doing some good in the meantime.”

Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest, said the partnership will communicate the winning message “to every corner of the UK”.

“The Creative Shootout is unique with its real-time focus and our £250,000 media spend will hopefully make a meaningful difference to the issue of food poverty in the UK,” he said.

Entry to the awards is open until November 28 and to enter, agencies need to give the judges ‘60 seconds’ on why they have the creative clout for FareShare. The format can be any content, but must be no longer than 60 seconds. Entries will be shortlisted to eight teams to compete in a live head-to-head final at BAFTA, London, in January. At the final, finalists will receive the real brief from FareShare at lunchtime, have four hours to work their creative magic, before pitching their ideas back in 10 minutes. First, second and third will be crowned at an after-party.