News Limited announces Australian Young Lions Winners for 2011 – six heading to Cannes in June
News Limited has announced the three winning teams across the Print, Cyber and Media categories of the 2011 Young Lions Competition.
Matt Swinburne (above left) and Mike Felix (above right) from Leo Burnett Sydney beat 18 other teams to take the top spot in the Print category, while Gene Brutty and Tim Seddon from The Brand Agency, Perth have won the Cyber category. Lachlan Williams from Razor Media Sydney and Jessica Woodford from 303 Group Perth have led the second round 24-hour brief challenge to take first place in the Media category.
It’s the second year in a row for Felix, who represented Canada in the 2010 Young Lions competition when he was based at Cossette West in Vancouver.
Both Felix and Swinburne are ext AUT Nerw Zealand graduates. AUT adschool graduates recently took out 1st and 2nd as winners of the 2011 NZ Cannes Young Print Lions competition thanks to Jennie Ko and Pip Perkins from DDB and second place team, Jono Aidney and Rob McDowell at Sugar.
Mat Baxter, UM CEO and Media panel chairman of judges, said: “Lachlan and Jessica had an enormously impressive grasp of the brief and managed to translate that understanding into a standout creative idea and communications strategy. Judging by their performance today, they’ll do Australia proud in Cannes.”
Mark Harricks, Executive Creative Director of JWT Sydney and chairman of the Print judging panel, added: “It was very important to the judges that the winning team show a confidence in their work as this will give them the best chance of winning at Cannes. The winning entry contained a strong insight that resonated with the judges. That, along with the simple and confident art direction, meant it was unanimously voted number one.”
Cyber panel chairman Tim Buesing, Creative Director Digital for Publicis Mojo, said: “What makes a jury happy is a simple idea, delivered with real interactivity and a professional finish. The winning team was right on the mark, and it’s great to see the growing number of Cyber entries, it means we can look forward to a new generation of digitally savvy creatives.”
All three briefs for the final round of competition were for The Alannah and Madeline Foundation (AMF), a national charity protecting children from violence and its devastating effects. The entrants were asked to develop a response within 24 hours for the AMF’s Buddy Week, which educates children, parents and children about bullying.
Rebecca Cowan, General Manager Marketing of the AMF, said: “The brief for the Young Lions final round competition has given us access to the hottest young talent in Australia, who developed some amazing creative and strategic ideas to further highlight the importance of Buddy Week.”
Winning teams will represent Australia at the 2011 Young Lions Competition in Cannes 19 to 25 June and will compete against an international field of Young Lions from around the world. The News Limited-sponsored Young Lions will receive return flights to Nice, accommodation and a Young Lions registration to the Cannes Festival with access to all the seminars, awards ceremonies, showcases and the Young Lions party.
News Limited Director of Sales Tony Kendall said: “In a fast-paced and competitive industry like ours, it’s important to foster young talent and the Young Lions competition provides the opportunity to compete against the best in the world in Cannes. It’s also rewarding to be able to support a charity organisation like the AMF who are doing such fantastic work for the benefit of children.
“The Young Lions competition has gone from strength to strength. This year we saw a record number of 266 entries from 72 different creative and media agencies, an increase of 44% from last year. We wish all the winners the best of luck in Cannes.”
To be crowned winners, teams in each category competed in two rounds of competition with the intense second round format of a 24-hour brief challenge simulating the Cannes Young Lions format. With 42 judges involved in assessing the entries, it was a rigorous process designed to find the strongest teams nationally across all three categories and best prepare them for their experience in Cannes.
The winning submissions in the Print and Cyber categories along with the finalist entries can be viewed on the OzCannes website.
18 Comments
Onya Gene and Tim. Smashing it!
wow, two kiwis representing australia in france. love it.
JWT Melbourne had the best of the 3 print entries.
Good stuff Matt and Mike!!! Can you go and like my video now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjS6ca7anUQ
Enjoyed the print work – strong insights.
Cyber: disappointing.
Safe travels, enjoy France.
winning work is here:
http://www.newsspace.com.au/2011-OZ-young-lions-finalists
9:10 I concur. The girls were robbed in my opinion…and no I don’t work for JWT Melbourne.
Nice one Lachie. You’ll own it over there.
the work that won is shit. #justSaying
Have to agree with the judges 100% on this one. It gives Buddy Week more meaning. There are victims on both sides, as nicely illustrated here, who’s emotional and physical frailties need to be addressed.
Well done lads.
Good of the photographer to drag bloke on the left away from shopping…
I have to say that I’m a little disappointed about how conflicting the restrictions around the brief was ( Cyber )
The brief clearly outlined that the banner had a Maximum file size of 40K ( standard or rich it didn’t matter )
“In the real world” if a client has a media placements for 40k banners you can’t go build a rich media expandable that is around 200k in size.
I don’t want to take anything away from the winning entry, however that entry has a file size that is punching up to the 200k mark.
If file size isn’t important to the judges then it shouldn’t be included in the brief!
Anyways, well done to all the winners 🙂
Re: print
Winner: I don’t get it. Someone enlighten me please.
DDB entry: not sure about this one. Not everyone who is bullied is friendless. A little bit off I think.
JWT entry. The best for me.
2:58 The bully is also a victim
I agree with some of the other comments on here, the JWT work was easily the best of the three finalists (and no I don’t work for JWT). The DDB work was nothing special and as for the winner, no way did that deserve to win.
Bullies are also victims of bullying? Not so sure that’s fact.
Hmm… By the sounds of it some of the cyber entrants who adhered to specs and the brief are a little pissed off and rightfully so. The expandable is WAY over 40K and the cursor one uses a display media format/use of hit area which just does not exist. If the brief had mentioned “thinking outside the box and the SPECS will be advantageous” then maybe some of these young creatives would have done the same. Shame on the judges for inconsistency. Less entries next year for that very reason.
Please. The JWT print ad is a worthy second place getter, but it doesn’t have half the insight that the winning spot does. The winning entry actually makes you think about the problem a little differently and raises the issue of prevention by helping both the victim and the bully.
Bullies are ultimately insecure. At that age, that insecurity largely comes from how the child is raised. They’re victims of their upbringing, hence the victim image sitting inside the bully.
And no, I’m not Mike or Matt or work at Leos. I just like the ad and believe it deserved to win.
Well done chaps.