Every year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity plays host to a unique collection of competitions which exist to showcase and develop the best of young industry talent. The Young Lions competitions, of which the original Print competition was launched in 1995, are integral to Cannes Lions and part of their long-term vision to identify and train industry talent.
The competitions require competitors from across the globe to fulfil a brief given by a carefully chosen charity or not-for-profit organisation and it is here that the competitions come into their own – working to springboard young talent while providing useable creative and marketing strategies. It is not compulsory for the charities to adopt the winning campaigns into their strategy but many of them choose to, proving not only the high-level of competitor talent but cementing the importance of the Young Lions in raising the profile of the companies involved.
About the competitions, Steve Latham, Head of Talent and Training at Cannes Lions, says: “As campaigners for creativity, Cannes Lions is committed to showcasing and driving young talent – by raising awareness of these competitions we hope to drive creativity in the younger generation. Competitors are chosen through local competitions and the winners of those get the chance to go to Cannes Lions and compete on a global level. It really is an unrivalled career driver.”
Successful 2014 entries currently in use include:
The International Child Art Foundation
They are using the logo created by the Gold winning team from Germany in the Design competition for the new World Children Festival website: