Stratford School student wins D&AD New Blood award for achievement in design and advertising
No matter what language a person speaks, most of us can relate to stories of common human experiences such as love, friendship, and conflict.
Austin Jack, a fourth-year Global Business and Digital Arts student, is a Wood Pencil winner in the British Design & Advertising (D&AD) New Blood competition for his proposed Netflix marketing brief, "Find Your Story." The campaign focuses on embracing universal stories regardless of language within Netflix's library.
"I'm still in awe of what happened yesterday," read Austin's LinkedIn post, as he learned he was a winner.
D&AD's annual award is regarded as the highest achievement in design and advertising. It is the equivalent of a "career knighthood," according to one industry observer.
"It's an incredible honour to win a D&AD Pencil at this point in my life, and I couldn't be more jazzed about it. Thank you to everyone who has helped inspire my passion for advertising thus far. Keep being great people," notes Austin.
Austin's submission, "Find Your Story," builds upon the diversity of Netflix's library and introduces viewers to stories they may have never considered. "Through exposing audiences to the wide variety of content that exists on Netflix and showing them how relatable it is, we can get them excited, talk about, and consider Netflix's international titles first," Austin's brief explains.
“Audiences in the UK find non-English titles unrelatable. But no matter where you're from, you don't need to understand the language to relate to the characters on screen.”
Of Netflix’s 2,600 title catalogue, half are not in English.
One of Netflix's most popular shows of 2021 was Squid Game. "You may not speak Korean, but you know what it's like to want a better life," Austin points out.
By showing the existing content to a wider audience, Austin is potentially solving a major challenge for Netflix, which spends an estimated $13.6 billion annually on creating and licensing content in a wide range of languages.
The D&AD Awards, famously noted for their pencil trophies, are an annual award for achievements of creative excellence in design and advertising. Established in 1962 as British Design & Art Direction, D&AD is a creative collective built upon celebrating and raising standards within the advertising industry.
View Austin’s D&AD Award-winning submission on the D&AD Website.
