Being part of a close-knit business community in Sheffield with lots of great clients feels special, so giving back to the local community is very important to us at Rebus Creative.
That’s why we were delighted to sponsor the Best Branding award at the Interim Marketing Awards last week as part of this year’s BIG Challenge from Sheffield City Council.
What is The BIG Challenge?
Now in its 18th year, The BIG Challenge is Sheffield City Council’s annual enterprise competition for secondary school students in Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9).
It gives students the chance to create and develop a business, encouraging their imagination and entrepreneurial spirit while helping them to develop business and marketing skills.
How does it work?
There are six steps for students to complete:
- Put together a team of up to six people
- Think of a business idea
- Put together a plan of how you are going to market and sell your product
- Sell your product
- Work out how much profit your business has made
- Document and report back on what you achieved and how you found the process of running a business
If the teams make money selling their goods, they are in with a chance to win the big prize, a £500 Virgin Experience Day voucher for each member of the winning team, awarded at an event in April 2025.
Sheffield City Council provides the initial £25.00 business loan to get started, offering the teams opportunities to sell their products along the way.
This year, eight teams from five secondary schools in Sheffield sold their handmade products at the Moor Market on 2nd and 9th December, including:
- Decorated tote bags
- Beaded jewellery
- Christmas cards
- Wax wraps, lip care and candles
- Arty prints of Sheffield
Over the two events, the teams sold £1400 worth of their products.
Students can keep all the money they make, and the top teams will be given the chance to pitch their ideas to BBC’s Dragons’ Den during an event in March 2025.
Contributing to Our Community: The BIG Challenge Resources
The initiative also provides local businesses with the opportunity to advise the children by helping the teams to formulate their products from the ideas stage through to marketing and sales.
There are practical learning experiences in the competition including the sales days at the Moor Market while a number of learning resources help teams to develop their ideas and bring them to market, including:
- A student workbook to help participants through the process and explain the skillset they will develop as during the process
- Separate guides for this skillset – teamwork, creativity, problem solving and aiming high, which contain prompts, advice and guidance
- A survey for team members to complete at the start of their journey
- Practical aids such as a cash flow template and guide to using card readers so students can get to grips with taking card payments
- A video series packed full of top tips from Sheffield employers
- An introduction to journaling and a reflective journal template to give those taking part the opportunity to assess the growth of their businesses and what they learned along the way
- A survey for team member to complete at the end of The BIG Challenge
The Interim Marketing Awards
Held on 3rd December 2024 as part of The BIG Challenge, the Interim Marketing Awards ceremony showcased the marketing skills developed by the teams to sell their products.
The Interim Marketing Awards comprised four categories, each sponsored by a different Sheffield business:
- Best Branding sponsored by Rebus Creative
- Best Ad sponsored by unLTD
- Best Sales Pitch sponsored by Any Hanselman Consulting
- Best Community Engagement sponsored by Cavendish Cancer Care
Best Branding Award
We were absolutely delighted to be given the opportunity to engage with these wonderful students, who were brimming with creativity and determination.
There were 19 entries for this category, and our founder, Jane, had to pick two winners and one highly commended.
In fact, the standard was so high, that Jane picked two highly commended, as she just couldn’t choose between them!
Two Winners:
Two Highly Commended:
The two winners Munch Cookie from Meadowhead School and Urban Glow from Sheffield Girls High School will receive a branding workshop in their schools from Jane.
Here at Rebus Creative, we are delighted to round off our year by giving back to the local community at this amazing event.
The students are all brilliant and we can’t wait until next April to see which team will win!
We wish them all every success both in The BIG Challenge and for their future careers.
Giving back to the local community: Through Skills Development
The BIG Challenge is linked to the Skills Builder Partnership Universal Framework, which supports the development of essential skills for the workplace.
The skills learned during the challenge can be highlighted on CVs, making participating students an attractive proposition to potential employers, effectively helping them into employment on completion of their education.
Students develop essential workplace skills as part of the process, as defined by the Universal Framework:
- Listening – being able to listen and understand information
- Speaking – being able to share information or ideas with others
- Problem Solving – being able to find a solution to a challenge or situation
- Creativity – using your imagination to create new ideas or objects
- Staying Positive – using tactics to overcome setbacks and to achieve goals
- Aiming High – setting clear, high targets and having a way to achieve them
- Leadership – supporting, encouraging and motivating others to achieve a goal
- Teamwork – work cooperatively with others
Building a legacy
Giving children the opportunity to spread their wings in the business community gives them the chance to develop essential skills they will need in the workplace once they leave school, irrespective of whether they achieve their academic goals.
The Rebus Creative team was excited to take part in The BIG Challenge 2025. The highlight for us has been finishing our 20th anniversary year on a high note by giving back to the local community. Jane can’t wait to deliver her two branding workshops, and we are all looking forward to finding out who wins the competition next April!
If you are trying to build a business and finding the complexities of marketing techniques a struggle, or feel you lack the knowledge and resources to take your marketing to the next level, call the Rebus Creative team on 0114 553 2977, email us or complete the contact form on our website. We can’t wait to meet you, find our more about your business, and help you to reach your business goals!
