Canadian Young Lions winners announced

A total of 10 Canadian media and creative employees, as well as marketers, will travel to Cannes in June to compete among the top from around the globe.
For print-Media GOLD with Harvey Carroll

The Globe and Mail has announced the list of Canadian winners for the 2017 Young Lions and Young Marketers.

The Globe announced gold, silver and bronze medalists across five categories (media, print, film, cyber and marketers) at the 2017 CMDC conference in Toronto on Tuesday.

The gold winners have earned a chance to compete on a bigger stage and hobnob with industry executives at the global Young Lions contest, which takes place at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June. (The Globe is the festival’s official representative in Canada.)

The competition involves teams answering a client brief within a 24- or 48-hour period, depending on the category. This year’s competition, which had a record high number of entries, included briefs from non-profit brand Samara Canada, a non-partisan research and educational charity that aims to connect citizens with politics. The organization tasked Young Lions competitors with making its message relevant to a younger, tech-savvy audience.

The Gold-winning idea in Media came from a pair from Media Experts, who created “We GAF” (or “We give a fuck”), a platform aimed at delivering a more one-to-one experience for young Canadians to engage with politics. For example, a chatbot would converse with users about issues like public transit. Touchscreen out-of-home ads would allow users to vote on issues, while data from social sentiment analysis would be used to create other OOH ads placed in front of areas like Toronto’s city hall.

youngLionsMedia2017

The top idea from the Young Marketer competition came from a team at PepsiCo for its Lay’s brand. The “Lay’s Wish Chips” campaign would involve a new product launch where every chip in the bag would be a folded “wish chip.” In the Gold winning plan, the idea is that Canadians would share social posts with the chips and their wishes for a better country, with the brand responding to each post and directing users to specific organizations. Lay’s would also direct $1.50 (in honour of Canada 150) to “@mentioned” organizations. The campaign idea also included a content series of five digital shorts.

In the Film category, the Gold-winning team from Rethink came up with a concept that frames Canadians’ day-to-day issues as political issues.

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The winning Print category idea, meanwhile, came from a team at Tank and centred on the idea that what’s happening with our neighbours can easily cross our border, so political engagement shouldn’t be ignored.

YoungLions-Print-2017

In Cyber, the Gold idea came from a team at Sid Lee, who pitched “The Good Samaratan,” a data-driven social platform that would use sentiment analysis to respond to activists in real time.

youngLionsCyber2017

Media

Gold

  • Elizabeth McPhedran, communications manager, Media Experts
  • Jessica Burnie, visual communications director, Media Experts

Silver

  • Russell Cross, senior communications designer, Initiative
  • Dylan Montcalm, account manager, Adobe (TubeMogul)

Bronze

  • Brent MacKinnon, digital marketing strategist, Time+Space Media
  • BeckyAnne Brydon, Deigital Strategist, Time+Space Media
Cyber

Gold

  • Jordan Gladman, art director, Sid Lee
  • Alex Boland, senior designer, Sid Lee

Silver

  • Shane Rodak, copywriter, J. Walter Thompson Canada
  • Alec Carluen, art director, J. Walter Thompson Canada

(No bronze was awarded in this category)
Print
Gold

  • Stephanie Bibeau, copywriter, Tank
  • Étienne Goulet, art director, Tank

Silver

  • Michael Mehrasa, copywriter, Taxi Canada
  • Alyssa Jongsma, art director, Taxi Canada

Bronze

  • Geeta Chopra, freelance strategist/consultant, Geeta  Chopra Consulting
  • Gina Nasuti, account supervisor, Behaviour Inc.

Film

Gold

  • Jake Bundock, art director, Rethink
  • Andrew Chhour, copywriter, Rethink

Silver

  • Layton Wu, copywriter, DentsuBos
  • Tyler McKissick, art director, Open. A Creative Company

Bronze

  • Lorne Heller, copywriter, Juniper Park/TBWA
  • Justin Luu, art director, Juniper Park/TBWA

Young Marketers

Gold

  • Michael Alaimo, marketing manager, Gatorade, PepsiCo Beverages Canada
  • Christian Alaimo, associate marketing manager, Away From Home, PepsiCo Beverages Canada

Silver

  • Telis Carayannakis, brand manager, Budweiser, Labatt Breweries of Canada
  • Michael Holmes, senior assistant brand manager, Old Spice, Proctor & Gamble

Bronze

  • Kevin De Gruijter, assistant brand manager, Bud Light, Labatt Breweries of Canada
  • Kristina McCaughey, assistant brand manager, Stella Artois, Labatt Breweries of Canada

Pictured: Media Gold winners Elizabeth McPhedran and Jessica Burnie of Media Experts with IPG Mediabrands CEO Harvey Carroll