Secondary school students were challenged to set up their own advertising agency to create a Milk It campaign, advertising the nutritional benefits of dairy to their peers.

358 teams entered the competition and the shortlisted 20 got to pitch their project to the judges; Richard Curran from Dragon’s Den, Barry Dooley from the Association of Advertisers in Ireland, dietician Paula Mee and Amanda McCloat, head of home economics at St Angela’s college, Sligo.

Deric Hartigan, 3e TV presenter and qualified farmer, was master of ceremonies and had everyone in the room tweeting about the event. He loves how the awards “get young people to think about where dairy comes from and be creative in promoting it”.

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Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, commended the students on the fantastic job they did: “More and more young people are choosing agriculture, nutrition and sport careers. These awards are a great way to get teenagers involved in the dairy sector, which is expanding rapidly at the moment.”

The overall winners, Smoolicious, have won the chance to get their campaign transformed into a television advertisement, which will be broadcast on TV3 and 3e.

Overall Winners

Smoolicious

School: Árdscoil na Tríonóide, Athy, Co Kildare.

Team members: Transition year students Ellen Purcell, Eadoin Burgess, Clodagh Walsh, Emma Owens, Anna Cully and Adam Ryan.

Slogan: It’s delicious, it’s nutritious, it’s smoolicious.

Project: A catchy slogan with a unique campaign made this project stand out. Complete with recipes, a free yoghurt day in school and a smoothie-making bike, it was a fun project that other teenagers could connect with. Their comic strip with Freddy and Freeda the bull and cow added a love interest to it.

Junior Winners

Dairy to Dream

School: Maigh Ene College, Bundoran, Co Donegal.

Team members: Second year students Eimear Colreavy, Rozarah Glenane, Laura Russell, Anna-Maya Pawlowski, Mary Loughlin and Breege Clancy.

Slogan: Strive for five.

Project: This group wanted to make teenagers aware that they need five portions of dairy a day. Their smoothie selfie was retweeted by Rachel Allen and their number five jerseys got their whole school talking at a penalty shootout competition. From pictures in their local newspapers to rapping on stage, this team was on the ball.

Senior Winners

Belle Bo Advertising

School: St Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom, Co Cork.

Team Members: Transition year students Shauna Buckley, Niamh Dineen, Niamh Relihan, Laura Murphy, Sinead Cronin and Kirstin O’Reilly.

Slogan: The healthy way is five a day.

Project: Belle Bo certainly have some future marketers among them. After detailed field and desk research, they set out to educate their peers about dairy.

Along with a dairy day out and a dairy treasure hunt, they created a handy app that includes recipes and a dairy portion calculator. Their Dairy Dock was an interactive station in their school where students could learn about dairy.

Junior Runners-Up

The Milk Busters

School: Dominican College, Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Team Members: Third year students Sabine Haller, Tara Jenkins, Katie Doyle, Amy Giblin, Rachel Fitzpatrick and Fiona Cullen.

Project: This team did a survey on milk consumption in their school and found that only 5% of their peers consumed milk after sport. So to tackle the issue, they dressed up in onesies and ran around the school distributing 300 cartons of milk to everyone. They proved that people love the taste of milk but perceptions need changing.

Senior Runners-Up

The Chunder Wonders

School: De La Salle College, Co Waterford.

Team Members: Fifth year students Nathan Long, Jack Walsh and Robert Sheehan.

Slogan: Don’t cut the cheese.

Project: Chunder Wonders stepped up to deal with misleading headlines in the media about dairy.

They created a fun board game that worked as a research and educational tool. Landing on certain squares could result in a nutritional question or a cheesy task. Their cartoon-style TV ad made everyone laugh.