Yahoo Academy 2025 wraps with pitch-off for youth charity ‘Musicians Making A Difference’
Yahoo’s 14th annual Yahoo Academy program has come to a close, culminating in a high stakes Pitch-Off event for Australian youth charity Musicians Making A Difference (MMAD).
The 30 emerging leaders from across the Australia and Singapore media and marketing industry had just two hours to respond to the pitch brief of ‘Keep MMAD’s Home Humming’. The objective of the brief was to develop a compelling and repeatable fundraising mechanism to generate $200,000+ annually to help sustain MMAD’s headquarters and continue their life-changing support for at-risk youth in Australia.
Delegates incorporated the techniques, skills and tools picked up over the course of the two-day program that explored how imagination can drive brand impact and marketing fit for the real world, hacking culture to fuel creative ideas, innovation in AI and how to deliver an impactful pitch. These sessions were run by industry luminaries including:
Rob Campbell (Chief Strategy Officer, Colenso BBDO)
Simone Gupta (Co-Founder, Supermassive)
Lucio Ribeiro (Founder, Lucio.AI)
Greg “Sparrow” Graham (Founder, The Nest Consultancy)
The judging panel, composed of Gupta, Campbell, John McNerney, Managing Director AUSEA of Yahoo, Dominic Brook, Co-Founder and Managing Director of MMAD, Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, and Erin Green, Head of Marketing of the Cairns Hatchlings, was presented with a wealth of innovative ideas from teams in the Pitch-Off. These ranged from ticketed events, jam sessions, mentorship programs and out-of-the-box brand collaborations.
In the end, it was team ‘Hoo Ya’ – consisting of Shai Stern, Native and Social Campaign Executive at News Corp Australia, Meaghan Lowth, Performance Manager at OMD, and Singaporean delegate Brian Yak, Senior Account Manager at CPXi Asia – who took home gold and won the competition. This year also marked a milestone, with an international delegate being part of the winning team for the first time since Yahoo Academy opened for entries from Asia three years ago.
Their idea, ‘MMAD About Silence’, tackled the often-unseen mental health challenges young people face, aiming to break the silence by making it impossible to ignore. The campaign centred on a three-pillared, omni-channel strategy. It featured a unique combination of busking and silent disco and sports partnerships with supporting social content shared under the hashtag #WhyCantIHear. The team also successfully mapped out a path to sustainable funding through corporate partnerships. At its core, the campaign aimed to spark conversation through intrigue.
The winning team, lauded by judges for a simple, emotive approach that felt more like a cause than a campaign, was awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to a major international marketing conference held later this year.
Teams Inf8nity and De-MMAD Side Platform (DSP) also received honourable mentions for their creative and practical approaches to the brief.
Reflecting on the experience, winning-team delegate Meaghan Lowth says: “Yahoo Academy has been super fun and refreshing. It stood out from other events by helping us have meaningful conversations with our talented peers. The speakers addressed some really relevant and interesting topics that left us buzzing.
“Over the last two days, we learnt how MMAD is helping young people suffering with depression, homelessness, and domestic violence. We wanted to amplify that and show how music can bring out the silence within individuals by silencing people’s screens for 24 hours.”
John McNerney, Yahoo’s Managing Director AUSEA, says: “Congratulations to this year’s winning team on an outstanding performance. Yahoo Academy was designed to help spark fresh ideas and equip participants with practical tools they can leave with.
“The calibre of creative-thinking and boldness we saw in this year’s delegates was exceptional. It’s inspiring to see these emerging leaders tackle real challenges and walk away with elevated confidence and practical strategies to create meaningful impact in their roles and across the industry.”
MMAD’s Co-Founder Dominic Brook adds: “The work MMAD does is about creating great, meaningful change by rebranding young lives and investing in their future. The ideas brought forward in this challenge were bold, thoughtful and genuinely capable of making a difference.
“We’re so grateful to the media organisations who nominated their young talent and our hope is that this experience will spark some ideas for ways to support the mental health and wellbeing within their own teams.”
Companies involved in this year’s Yahoo Academy included: Athyna, Atomic 212, BWS (Endeavour Group), CPXi Asia, Half Dome, Hearts & Science, INNOCEAN, iProspect, Kinesso, News Corp Australia, OMD, PHD, Slingshot, Spark Foundry, The Speed Agency, Starcom, UM, Wavemaker and Zenith.
Hero image (L-R): Winning team – Meaghan Lowth, Shai Stern, Brian Yak
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