xAd will merge two winning ideas developed at Plan It Day to help drive efficiency for food redistribution charities on Do It Day, which will take place on 10 November.

In cities all over the world, homeless people starve, while businesses throw away tonnes of food that in many cases is still edible. Such a dire situation invoked similar responses from xAd’s two Plan It Day challenge teams, with one focusing on the distribution logistics and the second on the marketing efforts. The challenger decided that combining the two would create a stronger overarching solution.

Daniel Warner, supply and data director at xAd, highlighted Team One’s logistical understanding of the problem and how to solve it, especially by incorporating the issue of delivering warm food. He also was impressed by how Team Two had envisaged a digital map of London called The Great British Food Bank.

Despite the strength of both ideas, it was Team One that shone the brightest to xAd.

“What they really nailed was the understanding of what bits the technology allows to be automated,” explained Warner. “Instead of getting too bogged down in the details of what that looks like, they have really focused on the transportation of food and who we would need to partner with, what does that partnership look like and the logistics behind introducing thing around distance and commuter time and saving fuel costs.”

He continued: “For me, the reason why they won is because they nailed pay point of the challenge. The technology swept in and, as complex as it is, almost made that easy. The hard bit is what do the logistics look like and they have nailed it with their ideas.”

The two teams will subsequently work together to realise their ideas. Those were:

Team One: Alexandra Matthews, xAd, Melissa Srickland, Bing Ads, Eleanor Worman, Clear Channel, Borja Escriva, Krow.

Team Two: David Cardona, Krow, Elle Edwards – Scott, igital Consultant, Susan Robinson – xAd, Rob Arnott, The Drum.

View the entire article on The Drum.