Marcus Billingham-Yuen and Angelina Das.
Take it from last year’s winners: NGEN Award Day is a high-stakes, adrenaline-fuelled experience where preparation meets performance. Here’s their insider’s look at what to expect, how to prepare, and how to handle the unexpected.
On paper, NGEN Award Day is straightforward – we got a call in the morning asking us to pitch our submission in the afternoon to a panel of industry judges. (This year’s award entrants have the luxury of 24-hour advance notice.)
For two type A personalities like us, the preparation started not hours before, but a full week in advance. We had no idea whether we’d make the shortlist, but that wasn’t important. What mattered to us was being prepared… just in case.
3-step game plan for NGEN Award Day prepping
So, what did that week involve? Three things:
One, we re-read our submission. Having submitted months before, we needed to reconnect with the spark that made us believe in our campaign idea, ‘Mirror Your Success’.
Two, we interrogated the idea. We now had a fresh perspective thanks to more time and we challenged our idea from every angle, identifying gaps and testing whether we could confidently close them if asked.
Three, work out our pitchcraft. We started off by joking about what pitchcraft we ourselves would love to see if we were watching it, and what would make it memorable. While we did eliminate a few of the more outlandish ideas, we settled on using a mirror for a magician-like reveal of the big idea, and that Marcus would find a way to smoothly drop the word ‘reflection’ somewhere in the pitch.
Finding out you’re through to the pitch round – and what happens next
A week swiftly went by, and it was NGEN Award Day.
We got the call just after 9.45am that we were to clear our schedules and get ready to present at 1pm. The nerves well and truly set in for us.
Thankfully, our leaders had given the green light to clear our diaries… again, just in case.
In those three hours, we used the preparation we had already done as a starting point for rehearsing and played to our strengths with who was going to lead what section. We also continued to sweat our idea, preparing to answer any questions from the judging panel. Marcus also had to source the mirror – luckily, we found a full-length beauty we could borrow from the Sales team.
By the time 1pm rolled around, we had done all that we could. It was finally pitch time.
Waiting in the green room was a great opportunity to calm our nerves by chatting with the other teams. We had all worked hard to get in that room and found comfort in the shared experience.
We were second last to pitch, and it felt like a lifetime had passed by the time our turn came up. Walking into the board room, it was large and intimidating. Full of people whose faces dominated the trade press, who’d rewritten and written the rules of the game and who were clearly a little lethargic having heard nonstop pitches for the past two hours.
But, with Marcus waddling into the room with a mirror bigger than him, we think it piqued their curiosity.
Tech fails and pure adrenaline in the pitch room
Kicking into gear, things were going as practiced. Ten minutes to make our pitch go WOW! And everything was going smoothly until…
We lost our last four slides mid-pitch. The clicker finished, Ang was mid-sentence and somehow our slides hadn’t carried over into the presentation – and we still had so much left to go.
It’s difficult to explain the sensation, but the air-conditioned board room suddenly turned into the hot Sahara Desert. (Not that either of us has ever actually been there.)
What came next was improvisation. Rolling with the punches, trusting each other – we had poured our hearts into our submission, and we had a responsibility to do it justice – we kept going.
The rest of the pitch was a blur and then came question time. Luckily, two questions were ones we had predicted in our rehearsal time and could smoothly answer.
Leaving the room, post-pitch adrenaline was pumping – and we channelled this energy into our debrief, reflecting on the moment for us, and appreciating the chance to pitch in front of industry leaders.
NGEN Award Day isn’t easy. But it’s a growth opportunity that will surprise you with what you can achieve, and what you are capable of.
4 STEPS TO NAIL NGEN AWARD DAY
1. Reconnect with your big idea.
Reread your entry and remember what made you believe in it. Judges can’t buy into something you’re not still passionate about.
- Stress-test your thinking.
Anticipate tough questions. Challenge every angle. Be your own most critical judge first. - Design a pitch they’ll remember.
Use storytelling, props, humour, structure – whatever works. Just make ityou. - Practice under pressure.
Rehearse like it’s the real thing. Then do it again. When nerves hit, muscle memory will save you.
Marcus Billingham-Yuen and Angelina Das proceeded to win the 2024 NGEN Award, becoming the first media owner duo at News Corp Australia to accomplish this feat.
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