Competition Rules

• All participants in the competition must be of high school age (14-18 years old at time or registration).

• Participants can compete individually or as part of a team (maximum 5 students per team). A team can be formed with students from the same high school or from different high schools.

• All participants must register for the competition. If you’re working with a team, all team members must register for the competition.

• The participants must complete the online Blue Ocean Mini-Course before submitting their pitch.

• All pitches must be original and not copied from somewhere else.

• All pitches must be in English.

• Pitches should be video files and must be under 5 minutes in length. The files must be under 1 GB.

• Upload your blue ocean pitch to YouTube with the hashtag #blueoceancompetition and include a link to the published video when submitting your entry on the pitch submission form.

• Pitches received after the submission deadline (Feb 16, 2025, midnight) will not be accepted.

• Top 100 pitches will be added to our YouTube channel once they are submitted.

• Pitches must not violate laws or trademarks.

• Blue Ocean Competition reserves the right to eliminate any pitch and/or disqualify any individual or team that it deems inappropriate or harmful to another team or the competition itself.

• No derogatory comments should be made on other pitches once they are up on YouTube.

• While there is no set format for pitches (voice-over animation or graphics or talking heads), we encourage you to use the templates provided to structure your pitch for increasing your chances of winning.

• Use of Blue Ocean tools to describe your business idea is mandatory. Use the Strategy Canvas to describe the industry landscape, the Three Tiers of NonCustomers to describe your target market and the Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid to describe your strategy.

• Each pitch will be evaluated by multiple judges who will watch randomly assigned pitches. We will combine the scores and then rank all pitches. The top pitches in each round will move to the next round. You only submit once.

• We start by choosing the Top 100 pitches. We then narrow the list down to the Top 25, then the Top 10 and then announce the winners.

• Each round is approximately 1-2 weeks. So, once we announce winners from one round, it will take us one-two weeks to narrow the list again.

• Judges will use the Scoring Criteria on our Resources page.

• Once we get to the Top 25 Pitches, we will provide feedback on your pitch from the judges in that round.

• The People’s Choice Award is chosen by a combination of YouTube likes and our own Judge likes. To be eligible, the pitch must be included in the Top 100 as chosen by the judges. You can have your friends and schoolmates “like” your video.

• If you’re working with a team, submit only 1 video entry per team. You will be asked to enter your team members’ names on the pitch submission form.

• Violation of any rule will result in disqualification.

 

• Certificates for all winners.

• **Certificate of Participation** is awarded to all participants who submit their pitch.

• **Certificate of Outstanding Achievement** is awarded to Top 10 pitches.