Inwi’s The Next Ad gives young Moroccan creators a route into advertising
Getting a brand to notice your work is one challenge. Getting a paid brief is another. In Morocco, telecom operator inwi has connected the two through The Next Ad, a competition inviting young Moroccans to create advertising content for the brand.
Its first edition attracted more than 1,500 registrations and over 250 video submissions. Oussama Bensghir took both first prize and the public-choice award, alongside fellow winners Youness El Mendery and Rayan El Kaouid.
The opportunity extends beyond the awards. All three winners have been offered paid collaboration contracts to contribute to future inwi campaigns, including digital, social media and television content. That next step gives the initiative its wider relevance: a competition can become an entry point into professional advertising work.
Opening the brief to new voices
The Next Ad asked participants to demonstrate their ideas through advertising content for an actual brand. For emerging creators, that is a different exercise from building an audience around their own interests. A brand brief introduces another set of considerations: what needs to be communicated, who should care and how the idea serves the advertiser.
For inwi, opening that process to young Moroccans creates an opportunity to see how prospective collaborators interpret the brand. The submissions offer a view of their storytelling instincts, visual choices and ability to turn an idea into a finished video.
The registration and submission figures indicate interest in that opportunity. They do not, on their own, establish the quality or commercial effectiveness of the work, but they show that the competition reached a pool of people willing to try their hand at advertising.
Making the opportunity paid
The contracts are the most consequential part of the format. Recognition can help a young creator’s profile; paid assignments provide a chance to develop professional experience and earn from that ability.
Future campaign work could expose the winners to the less visible parts of advertising production: responding to feedback, adapting an idea across formats and delivering against a brand’s requirements. Those experiences matter when building a portfolio that can lead to further commissions.
For inwi, the arrangement also creates scope to develop a working relationship with the creators it has selected. How substantial that opportunity becomes will depend on the assignments, support and continuity that follow. The information shared so far does not specify the contracts’ duration or value.
What brands can take from the approach
The useful lesson is to plan what happens after a talent competition ends. Here, the offer of paid collaboration gives participants a concrete professional destination and gives the advertiser a way to bring selected talent into future production.
Brands considering a similar approach should connect the competition brief to genuine commissioning needs. Clear expectations, fair payment and constructive feedback can help new collaborators contribute effectively while developing their craft.
The next measure of The Next Ad’s value will be the work those relationships produce. Repeat commissions, the creators’ development and the performance of their campaigns will tell a fuller story than entry numbers alone. inwi has established the route; the coming assignments will show where it leads.
Sources :
Oussama Bensghir — Profil LinkedIn
inwi — The Next Ad
Hespress — The Next Ad : la jeunesse marocaine signe la prochaine publicité de inwi
