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Students Leilani Horthy Banks and Nick Warrand and TBWA\Australia’s Mads Catanese and Isobelle McGrath are the winners of FBI Talent and DDB Sydney’s LAUNCH Programme, �������� can reveal. 

Leilani and Nick win a permanent position at DDB Sydney, while Mads and Isobelle gain access to the intensive LIAison program training course, and $10,000. 

FBI Talent Co. CEO Michael Kean began LAUNCH in February 2024, asking a team of students and professionals under 30 to showcase their abilities in a competition designed around creative briefs. 

Leilani and Nick said of their win, “Before this, we were just two AWARD school buds who had vague plans of working together, but LAUNCH gave us a chance to really test our mettle in a tangible way. And to actually see if we could create something without killing each other in the process.” 

Matt Chandler, CCO of DDB Sydney and Leilani and Nick’s new boss, added, “I couldn’t be happier that Leilani and Nick won the Launch competition.” He noted the high standard of entries and said Leilani and Nick’s work stood out due to its insight, simplicity, and craft. 

“Nurturing ambitious and exciting young talent into our industry has never been more important, so it’s been a privilege to get to do this with FBI. Hopefully, this will become a regular occurrence, and collectively we can give more people the opportunity to get a foot in the door to a creative career,” he said. 

Leilani and Nick have both “tittered on the edges of the creative industry,” Leilani as a graphic designer from Salty Dagger and Nick as an account executive at PHD, however, the pair felt unsatisfied. 

“AWARD school last year really gave us both the clarity that the creative industry was what we’d been looking for. And LAUNCH got us in the door, which we couldn’t be more grateful for.”

Mads and Isobelle, meanwhile, described LAUNCH as an important initiative. Australia often “feels far away from the nexus of creativity,” they said, so they are keen to use the LIAison program as “our ticket to world-class talent and new perspectives sans the 24-hour flight.” 

“LAUNCH is so important. Not only is it homegrown, gives young talent what they need to succeed in this industry. The global competitions we’ve entered are fun, but all you gain is clout. LAUNCH is different—it offers something tangible.”

Michael described his joy in seeing the progression of the programme over the past 12 months. “Our industry needs to get more young talent settled,” he said.

With the LAUNCH Programme well established in Sydney and Melbourne, it is Michael’s ambition to continue that momentum in the first half of 2025. He hopes to expand the programme into other Australian cities and potentially “a few select international markets.” 

  

“Ultimately, LAUNCH was established to address the ever-present industry issue of getting young creative talent into agencies. Whilst a lot of existing courses do many great things, students finish those courses as individuals,” he said. 

“The reality of the current climate is that in most cases, agencies can only consider bringing in creative ‘teams’ who have a rhythm of working together. Encouraging young talent to find a partner, work on briefs together and enter as a team is what sets the LAUNCH programme apart.”