The Young Lions competition (formerly known as the Young Creatives competition) is open to advertising professionals up to 28 years old. The participating teams, comprising an art director and copywriter, are selected through a pre-selection process in their own country, with the winners attending Cannes.
The competition, which has Print, Cyber, Film and Media sections, takes place during the Festival week at the Palais des Festival, where the teams are briefed by a client to create and execute a campaign within 24 hours (with 48 hours for film).
How To Enter
To get involved with this challenging and rewarding competition, please contact your local Cannes Lions representative.
Competition Rules
Prior to the competition, the ‘Notes to Competitors’ will be sent to each Young Lions team, detailing a dos and don’ts of the competition, including details of the hardware and software to be used in the competitions.
Print Competition
An art director and a copywriter have only 24 hours to create a print ad. The brief, provided by our chosen organisation (in most cases a charity or non-profitable organisation), is disclosed to all competitors. The Print teams then consider the brief overnight and work between 08:00 – 20:00 the following day to create their ad. All work created during the competition is judged by the Press Lions jury and exhibited at the Festival.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded to winners, with the Gold winning team receiving their prize on stage at the Press, Cyber & Design Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 18 June.
This competition is open to a copywriter and web designer who have 24 hours to create a web ad. The brief, provided by our chosen organisation (in most cases a charity or non-profitable organisation), is disclosed to all competitors. The Cyber teams then consider the brief overnight and work between 08:00 – 20:00 the following day to create their work. The winners are decided by the Cyber Lions jury.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded to winners, with the Gold winning team receiving their prize on stage at the Press, Cyber & Design Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 18 June.
Film Competition
Two creatives will have two days to shoot and edit a 30-second commercial, created entirely on a mobile phone. The teams will be receive the brief from an organisation chosen by the Festival with the teams then having two days to produce their film. The work is then judged by the Film Lions jury.
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded to winners, with the Gold winning team receiving their prize on stage at the Film Lions, Titanium and Integrated Campaign Lions Awards on Saturday 21 June.
Media Competition
The Young Lions Media Competition challenges the brightest professional minds to demonstrate their strategic thinking and innovative approaches to solving an important marketing challenge to drive critical business success.
A charity or non-profit organisation, whose identity will remain secret until the competition, will present the brief onsite. This briefing will detail the challenge, including suggestions as to the target audience. Each team will then be required to generate the necessary insight to develop an innovative media/contact strategy, delivered within the set budget of US$1,000,000. The strategic idea must be demonstrated clearly across the selected media channels and the winning team will be the one that creates the most compelling communications strategy to the marketing challenge.
The winning team will be awarded a Gold medal, which will be presented at the Media, Outdoor & Radio Lions Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 17 June.
