Im afraid you cant participate with a newbie account,you should have atleast a jr.member rank for us to be able to wear a signature campaign,you should do a lot of research here because the resources are all here,go to the newbie section because that is where you will find good information about anything.As a newbie you should try to get the basic first before trying to earn because the basics will be our foundation for whom you will be in the future.
Yes, it is better to rank up first to get higher stakes/tokens in a camapaign. Everybody has different mindset and perceptions on the projects I think its good to involve in the campaign with higher status of ranking to be more knowledgeable in every transaction we made.