Cannes Young Lions Competition challenges young creatives from every corner of the marketing and communications industry. If you are 30 years old or younger, the Young Lions Competition is one of the best ways to celebrate your creativity on a global stage.
Young Lions Finland is a local competition, arranged by Marketing Finland, and the winning teams from each of the 7 competitions will be awarded with a pass to join the international Cannes Young Lions Competition and the Cannes Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France in June 2023.
Timeline 2023
- February: inviting the jury
- February 13: pre-registration opens
- March 13: pre-registration final deadline ADDITIONAL TIME UNTIL WEDNESDAY 15.3. at 13.00
- March 15 at 16-17.30: info webinar guiding through the entry and competition process
- March 17 at 16-20: brief from NGO and the competition time (24h or 48h, depending on category) starting at 22.00
- March 20-23: online judging for shortlists
- March 27: announcing the shortlists
- March 28-29: closed judging for Design, Film and Print Competitions
- March 30-31: presentations of shortlisted work for Digital, Marketers, Media and PR Competitions
- April: announcing the winners
- April 28th 2023: winners registered to the globalCannes Young Lions Competition
- May: lunch and sparring session for the winning teams
- June 19th-23rd 2023: Young Lions Competitions and Cannes Lions Festival in Cannes, France
We reserve the right to make changes to timeline, if needed. Participants will be notified of all changes.
Introducing the Steering Group
Competitions 2023
Design
Calling all designers: It’s time to create a design in response to a brief. Show the whole creative communications industry your design skills. After a briefing from a charity or NGO, you’ll have 24 hours to build solution. It’ll need to perfectly capture information about the product or service, the client organisation and its aims, and the specific goals of the campaign.
Who is it for?
- All Creatives, for example Graphic Designers/Specialist Designers/Art Directors/Photographers
- Full-working professional (freelancers included) aged 30 years old or younger
Digital
Calling all digital creatives: It’s time to build a digital-led campaign that uses both the platform and the technology behind it. Show the whole creative communications industry your skills. You’ll be briefed by a charity or NGO about their digital challenge. Then there’s just 24 hours for you to come up with a creative insight and explain how your digital solution uses a maximum of three social media platforms in new and exciting ways to move the brand forward.
Who is it for?
- All Creatives, for example Social media managers/Creative technologists/UX designers/Digital producers/Digital designers
- Full-working professional (freelancers included) aged 30 years old or younger
Film
Imagine having only 48 hours to film and edit a 60-second commercial. You’ll be briefed by a charity or NGO about their communication challenge. Then you’ll have 48 hours to come up with an original idea in response to the brief, film your footage and edit it into a captivating ad.
Who is it for?
- All Creatives, for example Art directors/Producers/Film makers/Creatives
- Full-working professional (freelancers included) aged 30 years old or younger
Marketers
Original, engaging creative work starts with a strong brief. This is a chance to go head-to-head against fellow brand marketers. After a briefing from a charity or NGO, you’ll have 24 hours to build a creative brief. It’ll need to perfectly capture information about the product or service, the client organisation and its aims, and the specific goals of the campaign – the kind that will clearly act as a creative springboard for an agency.
Who is it for?
- Marketing managers
- Brand managers/Category/Product managers/Client services managers/Channel marketing managers
- Full-time working professional under the age of 30 years old
- Brand Marketer working in-house for a single client (not an agency)
Media
We’re challenging the brightest professional minds working in media agencies to demonstrate their strategic thinking and innovative approaches to solving an important marketing challenge. After a briefing from a charity or NGO, you’ll have 24 hours to demonstrate how to create Media presentation and exploit the value of emerging media with consumer insights to drive effective communication strategies. You’ll need to show how your strategic idea would work across channels to craft a compelling communications strategy.
Who is it for?
- Media planners/Media strategists/Media buyers/Media managers
- Full-working professional aged 30 years old or younger
PR
Calling all PR professionals: It’s time to create an innovative PR strategy. Show the whole creative communications industry your skills. After a briefing from a charity or NGO, you’ll have 24 hours to demonstrate how to create engagement and exploit the value of emerging media with consumer insights to drive effective communication strategies. You’ll need to show how your strategic idea would work across channels to craft a compelling communications strategy.
Who is it for?
- Publicists/PR specialists/Social media managers/Copywriters/Communications Specialists
- Full-working professional aged 30 years old or younger
Calling all creatives: Could you come up with an amazing print advertisement and bring it to life in just 24 hours? That’s the challenge of the Young Lions Print Competition. After a briefing from a charity or NGO, you’ll need to produce a stand-out, captivating and unique print ad. We’re looking for an idea that leaps out and captures an audience, motivating and moving them towards the cause.
Who is it for?
- All Creatives, for example Art directors/Producers/Film makers/Creatives
- Full-working professional aged 30 years old or younger
Entry fee 200 € / entry (+vat)
Eligibility
All Young Lions taking part in the Young Lions Finland 2023 competitions must be 30 years of age or younger, born on or after 23 June 1992. You must enter as a team of two. Team members do not have to be employed by the same company. Each person can only enter in one team. Teams can enter once in one or several competitions. Entrants must be full-time working professionals or freelancers within the advertising/marketing/communications industry.
How to enter
Stage 1: Pre-registration between February 13 – March 13 for info webinar on March 15th and the briefing events to be held online on March 17th 16:00 – 20.00 pm. Pre-registration will be closed on March 13 at 23.00.
NOTICE! After the briefings, you can make the final decision of which categories your team will enter.
Stage 2: on March 17, right after the briefing session, we will open the competition platform, where all information, eligibility, guidelines and entry forms will be available. The competition will be run completely online. The link to the platform will be added here later.
Need for more information?
Maarit Aarrekangas, maarit.aarrekangas (@) marketingfinland.fi, tel. +358 50 435 5613
The Award package for the winning teams
All winning teams (7 teams, 2 persons in each) will be rewarded with a package of:
- flights Helsinki – Nice, France – Helsinki
- accommodation for the competition week in Cannes, France (or in the nearby area)
- Young Lion Competitor pass (value 1495€+vat)
- contact person available during the competition week in Cannes
- lunch and sparring session in May to get ready for the Cannes competition and Festival
Competition rules
By entering the competition, you agree to accept the terms and conditions
If you are interested in a nomination for the jury or establishing a partnership with our competition, please contact: maarit.aarrekangas (@) marketingfinland.fi.
