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Brand challenge · London 2026 · A concept brand

Nilas

A daily measure of blue.

Make the launch film for Nilas, a luxury spirulina drink that doesn't exist yet. One bottle, one light, one colour. The whole brand is here for you to use.

Make
One launch film
Length
20 to 60 seconds
Tools
Any you like
Entries close
Midday (UK time) on Sunday 11 October
A tall clear glass bottle with a glass sphere stopper, filled with pale blue liquid, on a dark stone plinth

The brand

Every other spirulina brand sells the blue loudly. Nilas does the opposite.

Nilas is a luxury spirulina drink. The others come in cans, with a list of claims, for a few pounds a serve. Nilas borrows from the best spas instead: stone colours, empty space, one light, and one colour shown once.

It is kept in glass, served as a small daily ritual, and sold where it is quiet: spas, suites and members' houses.

Nilas is not real. It is a concept brand made for Big Screen Hack, so that you have a complete brand to make an ad for: a name, a voice, a look, a bottle and a set of rules. Nothing is on sale.

The name

nilas, noun. The first thin sheet of ice that forms on a calm sea. Dark, still, and fine enough to bend with the water.

Say it “nee-las”. Write it Nilas in a sentence and NILAS in the wordmark.

The ask

Introduce Nilas. Quietly.

One launch film that makes someone want to hold the bottle. It should feel like the opposite of a drinks ad.

What to make
One film, 20 to 60 seconds long. Horizontal (16:9) is the shape to make first.
Optional
A vertical cutdown of a few seconds, for socials. It should work with the sound off.
Must appear
The bottle, the NILAS wordmark, and the line “A daily measure of blue.”
Who it is for
Someone in a spa, a hotel suite or a members' house, who has never heard of it.
What they do next
Nothing. There is no offer, no price and no web address. They remember the name.
Sound
Yours to choose. Room tone, water, one instrument or silence all fit. A voice, if you use one, says very little.

The one idea

Stillness. Everything is tested against it.

Nilas doesNilas does not
Show the blue once, surrounded by stone and shadowFill the frame with blue
Glass, stoppers, heavy paper, blind embossingCans, shrink sleeves, multipacks
Say one lineList benefits, badges or flavours
A small daily ritualA grab-and-go drink
Sold where it is quiet: spas, suites, members' housesA supermarket fridge

Voice

Write like a note left in a good hotel room.

Short, plain and calm. One thought a sentence. Say what a thing is. Do not sell it.

Right

  • A daily measure of blue.
  • Drink it sitting down. That is the whole instruction.
  • Kept like a fragrance.

Wrong

  • Supercharge your morning with nature's most powerful superfood!
  • Packed with antioxidants to detox and energise.

What you can say about it

Stick to these. Nilas makes no health claims, and neither should your film.

  • Nilas is a spirulina drink.
  • It is blue. The blue is phycocyanin, the pigment spirulina makes for itself.
  • It comes in a glass bottle with a glass stopper.
  • The name is the word for the first thin sheet of ice that forms on a calm sea.
  • The line is “A daily measure of blue.”

The look

The liquid is the only blue thing in the picture.

  • One light source, and deep shadow.
  • Natural materials: honed stone, smoked oak, linen, brass, heavy paper.
  • The bottle stands alone, like an object in a museum niche.
  • No people, no hands, no fruit, no splashes.
  • The liquid is the only blue thing in the picture.
  • Slow and almost still: light breathing, pigment unfolding in water.
  • A glass bottle of pale blue liquid alone in a dark stone niche, lit from above
    The hero. The bottle in its niche.
  • The Nilas bottle on a dark stone plinth, seen straight on
    The pack shot.
  • The bottle beside a stoneware cup and a brass spoon on a dark stone tray
    The serve.
  • The bottle on a travertine block against a pale plaster wall in morning sun
    Limewash. The daylight version.
  • The bottle at the edge of a dark, still pool under a shaft of daylight
    Upright, for cutdowns.
  • The bottle on a stone window ledge beside a linen bed at first light
    Where it lives. A suite at first light.
  • A plain off-white box with a blind-embossed seal beside the bottle on travertine
    The box. Blind embossed, no ink.
  • A plume of pale blue pigment unfolding in clear water
    The pigment.
  • A dark stone spa pool lit by one shaft of light, with candles at the edge
    The world it lives in.
  • Travertine, smoked oak, brass, linen, a pebble and blue glass laid out on a pale ground
    The material palette.

Film reference

Three short silent clips, to show the pace. Almost nothing happens, on purpose.

  • Light breathingThe bottle in its niche. The light comes up and goes down.
  • Pigment unfoldingThe blue opening in still water.
  • First iceNilas forming on a calm sea.

Every picture and film on this page was made with AI, as a concept visual. There is no real bottle to photograph.

Ways in

Ten places to start. You only need one.

These are starting points, not a checklist. Bring something better if you have it.

  1. 01The first sheet

    Start with the sea. Ice forms, thin and dark, and you only find out what you are watching at the end.

  2. 02One light

    A single light comes on in a dark room. That is the whole film.

  3. 03The measure

    The same small pour, every day. Seven mornings, one frame, nothing else changes.

  4. 04Sitting down

    “Drink it sitting down.” A film about the chair, not the drink.

  5. 05Kept like a fragrance

    Shoot it the way perfume is shot. Then let it be a drink.

  6. 06Unfolding

    Pigment opening in clear water, in real time. No cut.

  7. 07The quiet shelf

    Every other bottle on the shelf is shouting. One is not.

  8. 08Sixty seconds of nothing

    The slowest ad in the room. Hold the shot longer than feels comfortable.

  9. 09Materials

    Stone, oak, linen, brass, glass. Meet each one, then the blue.

  10. 10The wrong ad

    Begin as the loud wellness ad Nilas would never make. Then turn the sound off.

Brand files

Everything Nilas has, to download.

The bottle from four sides, the wordmark, the pictures, three film clips, the colours and the brand book.

The Nilas bottle from the front, at an angle, with its stopper out, and from above

The bottle. A tall clear glass cylinder with a ground-glass collar and a solid glass sphere for a stopper. No label. Give this sheet to your image or video tool as a reference, so the bottle stays the same from shot to shot.

Colour

  • Night#0d1213The room the bottle sits in. The default ground.
  • Limewash#e9e3d8Paper, boxes, and text on Night.
  • Travertine#d9cdb8Warm stone. Plinths and trays.
  • Smoked oak#3a2a22Dark timber. Tabletops and box linings.
  • Aged brass#a8873fMetal and small labels. Never a fill behind text.
  • Phycocyanin#6fcbd9The liquid. The only saturated colour in frame.
  • Deep water#1f6f80The blue on light grounds.

Type

Kept like a fragrance.

Cormorant Garamond, light. Headlines and pull lines. One word may be italic. Free on Google Fonts →

THE RITUAL

Jost, light. The wordmark, labels and body copy. Labels are small capitals, widely spaced. Free on Google Fonts →

The wordmark

The Nilas wordmark in limewash on night
The Nilas wordmark in night on limewash

NILAS in Jost Light, widely spaced. There is no symbol. Keep clear space around it equal to the height of the letters, and use the file rather than typing it.

Be careful with

  • Two blue things in one frame. If two things are blue, remove one.
  • Tightening the wordmark's spacing, or setting it in the serif.
  • Putting the wordmark over a busy part of a picture.
  • Gradients, glows, drop shadows and rounded corners.
  • Exclamation marks, superlatives and wellness words: detox, superfood, boost, cleanse.

Downloads

Download everything .zip

The zip also holds every picture on this page at full size and the three film clips. Use these files for your Nilas entry and your portfolio, and nothing else.

Prize

There is no cash prize for this one.

Nilas is a brief, not a competition of its own. What you get is a complete brand to make a finished ad for, and a piece for your reel.

The Big Sell
Nilas sits inside The Big Sell, the OpenClips advertising track, which has its own prize. To be in the running for that, your film has to be made on OpenClips and run for 20 to 60 seconds. Read its rules before you start.
The social prize
Post your film publicly, add the link when you submit, and it is in the running for the social prize like any other entry.
Your film
You keep it. Nobody is buying it or licensing it, because Nilas isn't a company. Show it in your portfolio as a spec ad for a concept brand.

How to enter

Six steps, and entry is free.

  1. Make your Big Screen Hack profile, if you haven't already. It takes about two minutes. Make your profile →

  2. Share your card to unlock your partner credits.

  3. Read the brief, then download the bottle, the wordmark and the pictures from the brand files on this page.

  4. Make your film with any tools you like, on your own or as a team. Add the wordmark and the line afterwards, in the edit.

  5. Submit it on the entry form: go to bigscreenhack.com/submit, tick Nilas and add the link to your film. If you made it on OpenClips, tick The Big Sell on the same form as well.

  6. Get it in before midday (UK time) on Sunday 11 October. Early submissions are guaranteed to be judged.

Make my profile

The rules

The small print, in full.

For this challenge

  • There is no cash prize and no separate winner for this brief.
  • Use any tools you like, within the terms of each one.
  • Make no health claims of any kind. Describe the drink, the colour and the ritual, never what it does to the body.
  • Say only the things about Nilas that are listed on this page.
  • No people, no hands, no fruit, no splashes. The bottle stands alone.
  • The Nilas wordmark must appear, added in the edit from the supplied files, not generated.
  • Music and voices must be original or properly licensed.
  • Nilas is a concept brand, not a real product. Show your ad as a spec ad for a concept brand, and don't present it as a real product on sale.
  • The Nilas name, wordmark, pictures and films are for your entry and your portfolio, and nothing else.

For every track and challenge

  • Entry is free.
  • Enter on your own or as a team. You don't need a ready-made crew: you can find collaborators among the people taking part.
  • Entries close at midday (UK time) on Sunday 11 October. Early submissions are guaranteed to be judged.
  • Unless the brief says otherwise, you can make something new during hack week or enter work you've already made, as long as you hold the rights to it.
  • You keep what you make. Big Screen Hack gets the limited rights in the chapter terms to judge, screen, promote and archive your entry, and everyone in your team must have the authority to grant those rights.
  • Before any public screening, you tell us who owns the script, which AI models you used, any material shot with real people, permission for anyone's likeness, the music rights and any territory restrictions.
  • Sponsors' challenges are judged separately from the independent main jury.
  • Partner credits are one code per person for each partner, redeemed on the partner's own platform.
  • The shortlist premieres on Friday 16 October at the IMAX.

The full rules for the event, including what you need to tell us about how your entry was made, are in the participant guide.

Drink it sitting down. That is the whole instruction.

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