news • 2 April 2026
Escape Students Pitch Ad Concepts for Howden Performance
As part of an exciting project opportunity organised by our Talent Development Team, representatives from Performance, the media wing of Howden insurance group, visited our campus in March to hear student pitches for a new animated advert.
About Performance
Performance is part of Howden insurance group, a global top ten insurance brokerage represented in 55 countries worldwide. They provide tailored insurance solutions to the creative industries including film, media, theatre, photography and gaming. You may recognise Howden from their recent sponsorship of The Lions rugby team, Ascot horse racing and Sail GP.
Where Escape comes in
This project was shared with students earlier in the year as an open opportunity to work on a real-world brief for a major client. The central idea is to unite the two worlds of insurance and video games to showcase Performance Gaming Insurance in a creative, high-energy advertisement.
As this is a group project, students across courses could volunteer for the opportunity to flex their skills as part of a studio-style team. From there, it was up to them to develop the concept, and for presenters to step forward from the wider project team and pitch ideas back to Howden and a student audience.
Three student presenters threw their hats in the ring, each outlining inventive pitches considering factors like narrative and visual style. Colin Powell, Business Development Manager and Gustaf Smith, Broker, were on hand to ask questions and provide live feedback.
What comes next?
The pitch meeting concluded with Escape Studios’ Talent Development and Studio Assistant teams stepping in to outline how they would support students to meet client expectations and timeline, to plan realistically and effectively, and to check in weekly on progress.
The Howden team are considering the pitches and will be back in touch to confirm the chosen plan. A big well done to the students who put their ideas forward - we can’t wait to see how the project evolves!
