A Cannes Recap from Grey's Young Lions

A selection of Grey's Young Lions have taken the time to reflect on their first ever trip to the giant international festival of creativity. Check out their thoughts below. 

SEK, Part of Grey

Eevi Kolinen, designer, and Emilia Nordgren, graphic designer are creatives at SEK, Part of Grey and two-time Young Lions competitors, consecutively. In their roles, they are responsible for a wide range of creative marketing and conceptual design. Daily, they both work with iconic Finnish brands. 

Eevi Kolinen, designer, SEK Part of Grey

This year, Cannes Lions tuned my brain to think and create better. In addition to competing in the Young Lions competition for the second year in a row, the week included keynotes and awards shows that we followed with admiration. The Festival truly inspires you to strive for a better future and highlights the vast potential of this field to make a significant impact. Among all the winning work, a few stuck in my mind, like Grey Peru’s Sightwalks (taking home Grand Prix in Design) for its true impact on helping visually impaired people better navigate Lima. One word: inspiring.  

This is the second year that I competed in Young Lions, with my partner Emilia Nordgren. This year, the brief was from Unstereotype Alliance, on society's way of defining success for young men. Upon receiving the brief, we immediately wanted to understand, and depict, the core issue that leads to a narrow perception of career success for men. Finding and implementing a meaningful idea in 24 hours is such a big challenge that it forces you to think on your feet, and ultimately, I am proud of the way we have learned to work together at SEK and Cannes. 

Emilia Nordgren, graphic designer, SEK Part of Grey

During the Festival, our favourite moments were the keynotes Let’s Get Unfashionable by Patagonia and Finding Creativity in Everyday Life by P&G, getting goosebumps in the awards show audience, and admiring the meaningful exhibited in the ACT hall and the Palais.

This year as a Young Lion, we were more prepared to work on the Young Lions competition. It is a skill to develop strong concepts in a limited time, and as a second time Young Lions competitor, we knew how to use our time wisely. For future Young Lions, it is so important to schedule your time in advance! It makes a world’s difference. For Eevi and I, we benefitted from working together for two years.  We know how to bring the best out of each other, even during intense assignments. We believe the best ideas are born in an encouraging and supporting environment, and we succeed when we are participating in true partnership.

After Cannes this year, I feel more than ever inspired to make impactful campaigns that can make a difference in this world. And with a buzz of excitement from the Festival, I will be tracking 'Outdoor,' 'Print & Publishing,' and 'PR' categories more closely than ever.  

Grey Argentina

Matías Cony and Trinidad Colombo are copywriter and design lead at Grey Argentina. In their roles, they are responsible for bringing to life both in words and art for many brands of the agency. Working on the same team, they created Famously Effective work for international and local clients such as LALCEC, AB InBev, Coca-Cola and IKEA, among others. This year, they participated in the Young Lions competition at the 2024 Cannes Festival. 

The entire process was mind-blowing for us both. Experiencing the Young Lions competition alongside the best and the brightest talent from across the world, we were able to learn from other creative teams as they solved the same brief as us -- for Unstereotype Alliance, a thought and action platform to eradicate harmful stereotypes in media and advertising. The winning idea from this year’s YL was standout and reinforced simple is always better. 

This learning and creativity is what Cannes is about for us, in being inspired by the people and the brands on the ground. Watching highly awarded creatives on stage every night, who we have been reading about and following our whole career, was something we will never forget.  

Mentorship is a priority for the team at Grey – both in Argentina and Globally - and we would like to say ‘thank you’ to the leaders across the agency for supporting us. During Cannes, they were always there to support us. From introducing us to the Festival ‘must knows’ to lending an ear or a shoulder when needed and pushing us forward during the Young Lions competition. This was our first time attending the Festival and being able to connect with leaders who care about us made a world of difference. During the competition we had some moments of stress and rush, but they were there to remind us “enjoy and look where you are” and encourage us to trust in our work, the same work that took us to Cannes.   

Cannes for us was about being inspired by the people and the brands on the ground. Watching highly awarded creatives on stage every night, who we have been reading about and following our whole career, it was all something we will never forget. But also connecting and talking with other Young Lions, learning different perspectives from around the world.   

There was a lot of interesting talk about AI on every stage, but the one that really sticks out to us was the 'Behind the scenes' with Poor Things, which reminds us that craft and handmade will always be differential.  

From all of the ideas on the Main Stage tracks, to the massive speakers such as David Droga and Sir John Hegarty, it was a heck of a ride! We tried to squeeze every drop out of it in every talk, ceremony, walk through the basement of the Palais or rosé.