2020 BRAND X CHALLENGE SIGN-UP HAS ENDED

OVERVIEW
The Brand X Challenge is a national experience design competition for undergraduate design, architecture and marketing students enrolled at a participating U.S. college or university. Participating students will learn about the growing experience design discipline as they develop an experiential activation featuring Sephora. Note: “Team” or “Teams” refers to single-student participants or multiple student participants composing of a team. Multiple student teams can only have a maximum of four (4) members (inclusive of the team captain). We have many teams with less than four (4) people as well as single-student teams.

The winning team will receive a $5,000 cash prize—and will be offered paid internships with MAS Event + Design or Sephora. The winning team will also be flown to the Experiential Marketing Summit (May 12, 2020 in Chicago) industry conference for a special awards ceremony in front of more than 1,000 industry leaders. Second-place team will receive $2,000 and third-place team wins $1,000.

The goal of the Brand X Challenge: Expose students to the growing world of “experience design,” a fun and expanding segment of the design industry and one of the fastest-growing job sectors for design, architecture and marketing professionals. What is experience design? It’s the creation of live branded experiences that combine creative strategy with structural elements to bring a brand to life for its audience. If you’ve seen Coke’s Spring Break Village, the Jeep exhibit at the Auto Show or Best Buy’s college campus Ultimate Dorm Room, then you’ve seen some great examples of experience design.

BRAND X PARTNERS
Brand X is produced by leading experience design company MAS Event + Design and Event Marketer magazine. In 2020, the program features Sephora. The Brand X Challenge invites students to design an experiential activation for a real company. Managing the entry process and communications with students are the editors of Event Marketer magazine, the industry’s leading publication on experience design and marketing.

Students interested in participating in the Brand X Challenge should be aware of the following deadlines:

BY FEBRUARY 21. Teams must confirm their intent to enter Brand X by completing the form on this website.
WEEKS OF MARCH 16/23. Teams review their initial concepts with “designer mentor.”
BY APRIL 3. Teams upload submissions.
APRIL. Judging of Brand X.
WEEK OF MAY 4. Finalists announced.
WEEK OF MAY 11. Winning team named and awarded at May 12 ceremony in Chicago.

All Brand X information and communications are anchored by and come from facebook.com/brandxchallenge. For questions or support, contact Brand X manager Kaylee Hultgren at [email protected].

To confirm your participation and get the ball rolling, complete the following to receive confirmation and more information. We’ll send your team some info on next steps. In the meantime, remember that you can get access to all Brand X materials plus experience design videos and images on facebook.com/brandxchallenge.

No purchase necessary. Competition runs from February 1, 2020, through May 12, 2020. Must be 18 or older, live in the U.S., be a full-time undergrad student at an eligible school, and not be employed by or a household member with any employee of Access Intelligence, or any sponsor/partner. Eligible teams must complete required criteria and submit materials as described in the Official Rules. Grand prize, second place, and third place winners will be selected by May 12, 2020 after two rounds of judging. Grand prize: all-expenses-paid trip to the 2020 Experiential Marketing Summit, valued at $4,000, plus $5,000 (total prize value: $9,000). Second place prize: $2,000. Third place prize: $1,000. The odds of winning depend on the number of entries. See the Official Rules here.