Inside a Sharp co-creation by Eleanor Bennett

A week of SHARP briefs
Throughout my work experience at The SHARP Agency, I have witnessed many briefs and activities. However, one of the most exciting events was SHARP’s Co-Creation for the revolutionary IT company Frog Education.

Meet the client
Frog Education is a company providing solutions for a tricky era of learning and assessment now that schools are facing ‘life-after-levels’. To do this, they offer progress trackers and other smart applications, making targeting problems easy for students, teachers and parents.

Let’s Co-Create
The workshop was a lively, creative affair involving about 20 head teachers and parents from all over the country and, in teams, various tasks were completed –all great fun!

But serious work was really underway. People were given the job of becoming advertising teams for the day to tackle each activity set, ranging from ‘polystyrene head’ thoughts to ‘create the poster’; the only rule being that no idea is a bad idea. This provided excellent early ideas and a starting point for the real advertising team at The SHARP Agency. It soon became apparent what the different aspects of the product were that these customers loved so much.

Everybody contributed to their team’s discussion and common themes started to emerge. A few hours and hundreds of ideas bouncing around the room later, each group had their ‘One Big Thing’ to present to the other teams.

The bigger Co-Create picture

Having created posters on flipcharts, the benefit of the day became apparent. An effective advertising campaign could then be quickly put together by the professionals at SHARP after hearing about the ‘one thing’ that would make the target audience stop and listen.

The day was a huge success. I personally found the experience incredibly interesting and as an observer (and a school pupil seeing the topic from a different perspective), I have developed a better understanding of how Co-Creation is a way to help create the best, most personal, efficient advertising possible.

Finally, I would like to thank The SHARP Agency for allowing me to come here for my work experience; I have found the whole process fascinating and the environment has been so welcoming and friendly yet you can see the hard work and determination that goes in to every single project. I have had a fantastic week, thank you very much.