Alicia Spyropoulos and Zoe d’Orey’s Young Lions diary wrap-up: WINNING* AT CANNES
Alicia Spyropoulos and Zoe d’Orey from The Taboo Group represented Australia in the Direct category of this year’s Cannes Young Lions competition. While they didn’t return home with a medal, they came back with something just as valuable: a fresh perspective on creativity, ambition and what success really looks like. In this candid diary, the pair reflect on a whirlwind week of sleepless nights, unexpected relief and why, despite missing the shortlist, they left Cannes feeling like winners.
WINNING* AT CANNES
*Without winning.
We spent the past week experiencing what two juniors, just a year into the industry, could only dream of.
The crème de la crème of advertising. A chance to test our creative minds against some of the freshest in the world. A week fuelled by croissants, caffeine in the form of French matcha (criminal we know), and whatever adrenaline is made of.
On paper, the maths wasn’t exactly in our favour.
480 competitors. 70 countries. 21 medals.
We didn’t win one. But left with a whole lot more.
What we learnt was, expectedly, invaluable. Simplicity really is king. There’re some cracked brains out there. And the human body can survive on an alarmingly small amount of sleep (whether it should is another question).
But the biggest lesson wasn’t actually about creativity. It was about ambition. Seeing the industry in its most distilled form, we also experienced what it feels like to work in an industry with ever-moving goalposts. Especially when it comes to awards.
Miss the Australian shortlist and you’re devastated. Make it to Cannes and you wish you’d placed. Shortlist and you dream of a medal. Silver is envious of Gold, and Gold is chasing a Lion.
There’s always another stage. Another party you weren’t invited to. Another DJ you missed. Another talk everyone says changed their life. It’s a week built on “what ifs” and constant comparison.
Which is why Thursday afternoon caught us by surprise.
When the shortlist dropped at 4pm and our names weren’t on it, the overwhelming feeling wasn’t disappointment. It was relief. Not because the pressure was over (although suddenly not having to sprint back across Cannes to present again certainly helped). But because, jury verdict aside, we wouldn’t have changed a thing about the work we’d submitted.
That realisation earned us our first proper Aperol of the week, and finally let us soak up exactly what we’d come for. We danced justifiably hard at Canva Pride (our completely unbiased pick for the best party in Cannes), wandered the Palais soaking up world-class work, and found ourselves on yachts chatting to creatives we’d admired on our LinkedIn feeds only a few months earlier.
Looking back, that’s probably the bit we’ll remember. Not the result, but the feeling of giving it our all.
So whilst our idea mightn’t have brought home gold, judge it for yourself. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
It won’t change our minds, though. We’re decidedly stoked.
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