Here at Pitch the tension is palpable, there is anticipation in the air and we can almost feel the enthusiasm in the atmosphere: B-Hive 2015 has been launched and the brief will be released on 8th December 2014. The proceedings have officially begun!

If you are working in the West Midlands region and are involved in the creative industries, be it professionally or academically, we assume that you will have heard of B-Hive – unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 5 years...

For those of you who don’t know about this truly fantastic scheme, B-Hive began in 2009 as a means of introducing the very best local talent to prospective employers in the professional world. Pitch founded B-Hive because we were all too aware of a severe gap in the market between the optimistic students fresh out of University armed with extensive marketing theory and the local agencies and in-house teams starved of original flair and contemporary skills. The newbies in need of workplace experience and the agencies and brands in need of imaginative input; it seemed like the obvious thing to do, invent an enterprise that would marry the two together via a good ol’healthy bout of competition!

B-Hive is open to all students who are currently in their 2nd, 3rd/final year of study, 2014 post-graduates and MA students (of any academic discipline). The scheme offers each applicant the opportunity to win one of 30 paid work placements with a host of hugely celebrated agencies and brands, giving students the chance to work on some extremely prestigious campaigns both online and offline.

B-Hive is split into 5 categories – Marketing, PR, Advertising, Graphic Design and Digital; each category consists of a panel of judges representing leading creative agencies and big brands (think Dragons Den, minus the truly scary dragons!). The hopeful applicants will respond to our brief in any way they see commercially-fit and if successful, be shortlisted and invited to present their ideas to the judges in their category.

This scheme not only benefits the students but also the companies involved – you need only see our plethora of case studies (available here) to understand how valuable B-Hive is, to both students and potential employers; previous winners have subsequently worked part time whilst completing their University studies, attaining full time post-graduate employment upon immediate completion of their course.

If you are a fledgling marketer or an employer interested in promoting the opportunities available in your agency, rest assured this opportunity is one like no other available in the Midlands today, give us a call to get involved!