Four teams of young Canadian ad talent are on their way to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June to compete in the International Young Lions Competition. As the official Canadian representative of the festival, the Globe and Mail will cover travel, accommodation and registration costs for the winners.
The winning teams were selected from 94 entrants in four categories: Print, Film, Cyber and Media. The Media category, introduced for the 2008 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, was open to those in traditional and non-traditional media planning, strategic planning and market research.
Open to adverati under the age of 28, the competition is designed to simulate the pressure and timelines the winners will face at the International Young Lions Competition in Cannes. The teams have a limited amount of time (from 24 to 72 hours, depending on the category) to deliver on a creative brief. This year’s brief was for Frontier College, a national literacy organization.
The winners, by category, are:
Print:
Jon Murray and Addie Gillespie, copywriters, TBWA Vancouver
Film:
Chris Booth, copywriter, and Joel Pylypiw, art director, DDB Canada
Cyber:
Theo Gibson, art director, OgilvyOne Toronto, and Cara Jackson, copywriter, Ogilvy & Mather Toronto
Media:
Paolo Pazzia and Luis Areas, interactive media planners, Marketel
For the Media category, two media professionals had 24 hours to produce an innovative media/contact strategy presentation. Lauren Richards, CEO of Starcom MediaVest, headed up the judging panel for the first appearance of the Media category. Joining her on the jury were Ann Kairns, BCP Montreal; Michael Bolt, MBS; Nancy Surphlis, M2 Universal; Cindy Drown, Cossette; Niall Mulholland, MediaEdge:cia; and Paula Carolan, OMD.
The winning entry in Media incorporated TV, print, search and web to put the target – adults 35 and over in urban areas with annual incomes of over $75,000 – in the shoes of people who are not literate. The TV element was a Canadian Idol integration in which the contestants had to memorize and perform their song without the aid of music or written lyrics.
In print, ads depicted the front cover of the newspaper with words missing from stories to simulate the experience of the illiterate person. Online, text was distorted on mouse-over, making it difficult to read. Sponsored search engine pages used misspelled words, and the ‘did you mean?’ link would be sponsored by Frontier College, pointing to the insight that people use search engines as spellcheckers.
The Young Lions Awards film, cyber and print catogories jury was moderated by strategy executive editor Mary Maddever. The jury included Bill Durnan, EVP, Cossette; Israel Diaz, CD, Leo Burnett; Tim Piper, AD/copy writer, Ogilvy; Eva Polis, CD, DDB Canada; and Christina Yu, VP/CD, Lowe Roche.
To view winning entries from The Globe and Mail Young Lions Competition, visit www.globelink.ca/younglions.
