Organisers of the advertising industry's Creative Shootout competition are calling on charities that support people with non-visible disabilities, including ADHD and autism, to apply to become its Charity of the Year for 2025.

Eight advertising agencies will compete at an event in January next year for the chance to work on their campaign for the chosen charity, backed by £10,000.

Each agency has eight minutes to pitch campaign ideas in front of a live audience at BAFTA in central London. Each year the competition has a different theme.

“These charities might support cancer patients through their diagnosis or provide help to people with conditions such as endometriosis and Crohn’s disease,” said organisers.

“They might also help educate around autism and ADHD - or drive awareness of lesser-known conditions such as dysautonomia.”

Organisers add that of the 16 million people with a disability in the UK, four in five have a hidden disability.

To enter, charities are asked to send in 250 words on why creativity will be important for them in 2025. Applications close on 31 July.

“So many of us think of ‘a disability’ as something obvious and visible. Yet for nearly 13 million people in the UK, a hidden disability is their every day, and way of life,”said Creative Shootout founder Johnny Pitt.

“We need to change the narrative here, and are calling on the UK’s best creative agencies to enter this year’s Shootout to help transform a charity, and turbocharge their own creative reputation.”

Last year’s competition was focused around health. Carers UK was named as the 2024 Charity of the Year and has been working with agency MullenLowe.

Previous charities to benefit include UNICEF, Time to Change, FareShare, A Plastic Planet, Crisis and FoodCycle.

Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker said: “Being The Creative Shootout’s chosen charity has been a hugely significant thing for Carers UK. Having the UK’s best creative talent laser focused on us for several months is something we could never have imagined.”

“And getting to collaborate with the agency MullenLowe, essentially for free, along with some of the UK’s biggest media partners like Clear Channel, Sky Media and The Guardian, has been game changing for us – as well as for millions of unpaid carers across the UK. We are hugely grateful to everyone involved.”

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