With a whopping 165 teams entered this year, the Globe and Mail today announced the results of the 2011 Canadian Young Lions competition.

Each team was asked to create a campaign for client The Stephen Lewis Foundation, a charitable foundation that seeks to address the challenges of AIDS and HIV in Africa. The target demographic was women 25 to 45 and the goal was to increase donations to the charity. Each Gold-winning team earns a trip to the official Cannes Young Lions competition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Gold in the media category goes to Peter Mak, digital strategist, and Nykolai Hrytsyk, assistant strategist, of Starcom, whose multi-tiered media plan urged women to think about what it would be like to lose someone they loved. Innovative approaches through social media (‘How would you feel if we removed these [friends] from your Facebook?’), mobile and traditional media won the hearts of the judging panel.

Silver in the media category went to the Cossette team of assistant buyer Doha Skaf and assistant planner Julie Carbone. The team’s media plan sought to increase donations to the SLF by teaming with retailer Aldo for an in-store, on-pack (shoebox) and in-mall advertising campaign targeting conscientious women with an eye for fashion.

Bronze was awarded to Media Experts duo Antina Lieu, account coordinator, and Valerie Whiffen, digital media coordinator, who created a media plan around a partnership with retailer Shoppers Drug Mart. The team proposed a ‘buy one, give one’ strategy in which Shoppers would donate one practical item from its Life Brand line to African women in AIDS-affected communities for every Life Brand product sold in store. Through a variety of media, the team sought to generate conversation about issues universal to all women, such as body image.

Media Experts CEO Lauren Richards, who moderated the nine-person media jury, shared her congratulations to all entrants with MiC in an interview this morning.

‘We have such amazing and talented young people in our business and they again showed a keen interest in developing and learning, evidenced by their sheer participation alone. Entrants were up 15% this year, which is absolutely fantastic. We can grow it so much further though – I honestly can’t understand why every media person under 29 isn’t participating. If you don’t want to learn, be inspired and have a chance to win a life-changing trip to Cannes, why be in the business?

‘So a big ‘way to go’ to all 65 teams that participated and for putting their blood, sweat and tears into some really interesting solutions,’ she continues. ‘There were great ideas throughout all the entries, but at the end of the day, we selected by connectivity of the ideation to the strategic proposition of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, the connectivity of the ideas and innovations to each other, the answers to the complete brief – which was a little more daunting this year – and the way the teams brought their thinking to life.’

Other Young Lions winners include:

Globe Young Lions Gold Print Winners:
Rebecca May, jr. art director, DDB Toronto
Domenique Raso, jr. copywriter, DDB Toronto

Globe Young Lions Gold Cyber Winners:
Alex Newman, designer, BBDO Proximity
Patrice Pollack, writer, Argyle Magazine

Globe Young Lions Gold Film Winners:
Amy Jacobs, copywriter, Grey Canada
Liz Donnelly, art director, Grey Canada

Related stories: Canadian Young Lions jury revealed