Computer with Top Spin entries displayed

Harvest worked with VicHealth on youth engagement project Top Spin.

Top Spin encouraged young people to critique the tactics big alcohol uses to target young people and fuel Australia’s booze culture.

Using The HiVE’s Gather tool, Top Spin took the form of a weekly competition judged by a panel of young people, creative practitioners and public health experts.


A selection of Top Spin entries

A selection of winning and commended entries.

The site examined the tricks and tactics big alcohol uses to encourage people to drink. Young people were invited to ‘spin’ these tricks and tactics in the form of text, images (such as advertising parodies) and videos. There were five themes to help frame the conversation, including Advertising and PR, Influence, Booze and sport, Life lessons and Our mates.

The competition ran for five weeks in May and June, attracting thousands of visitors and over 250 entries.

Top Spin combined great content with engaging design and an elegant user interface. The result was an outstanding example of how digital engagement can exceed best practice to generate interesting and thought-provoking results.

Top Spin is a great example of an engagement project that inspires broad participation from an audience often regarded as ‘hard-to-reach’.

To view the winning entries and see how the Gather tool makes for a great competition, visit Top Spin