DDB Sydney duo Friedlander and Schweikert global winners of YouTube’s 48 Hour Ad Contest

June 15 2011, 7:21 am | BY Lynchy | 13 Comments

My HipstaPrint 0.jpgSelected from hundreds of entries worldwide, the Jury have announced the two winners of the 48 Hour Ad Contest, one team consisting of Aussies: Simon Friedlander, a junior copywriter and Casey Schweikert from the TV Department at DDB Sydney.

Friedlander began work at DDB on the DDB Launchpad program and was hired full-time in November. Prior to this, after completing AWARD School in Sydney in 2009, he headed over to Austin, Texas and began a copywriting internship at Door Number 3, a full-service indie advertising agency. Schweikert has recently joined the DDB team in the TV Department after completing AWARD School 2010 in the top 30.

VIEW THE TWO WINNING VIDEOS

The other winner was also from the Asia-Pacific region, namely R. Venkatraman, creative director at Creativeland Asia, Mumbai.

Running for a third year, the 48 Hour YouTube Cannes Young Lions Ad Contest asked young talent, aged between 18 and 28 years old, to create a video to fit a brief set by charity Save the Children. Competitors were given just 48 hours to create an online video that would drive people to petition world leaders to invest in health care for newborn babies, little children and pregnant moms in struggling countries.

After uploading their video to YouTube, competitors were given one week to drive people to their video. The number of public votes received was then taken into account by the dedicated jury who have now chosen two deserving winners.

The 48 Hour Ad Contest was judged by jury members: Agnello Dias, Tom Hauser, Keith Ho, Gerry Human, Jens Mortier and Meera Sharath, also judges of the YouTube Cannes Lions Good Work Competition.

YouTube will fly the winners of the 48 Hour Ad Contest on an all-expense-paid trip to Cannes Lions where they will be given the much sought after opportunity to compete in the Young Lions Film Competition as “Team YouTube”. The competition will be judged by the Film Lions jury and the winners announced at the Film, Film Craft, Creative Effectiveness and Titanium & Integrated Awards Ceremony taking place in Cannes on Saturday 25 June.

Thumbnail image for Screen shot 2011-06-01 at 3.33.59 PM.jpgAs previously reported by CB, Ogilvy Sydney digital creative James Crawley (left) was selected as one of the top 5 finalists of the worldwide YouTube GoodWork 2011 competition, winning a trip to Cannes. His entry was the ‘Interactive Music Machine’, with his flatmate played the leading role.

VIEW THE VIDEO