Val Morgan New Zealand announces 2017 Cannes Young Lions winners in Film and Media

As the official representative for Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Val Morgan New Zealand has announced the winners of its National Young Lions competition in the Film and Media categories at an awards show last week.

This year CatWalk, the charity for research to find a cure for spinal cord injury, shared their vision with more than 70 teams across the two categories.  Open to agency folk under 30, it was the biggest turnout for the competition since established and the quality of work produced, some of the best the judges have seen.

Says Meg Speirs, general manager, CatWalk: “We congratulate all of the teams who competed.  We were thrilled to share our goals at CatWalk with the brightest young minds in the advertising industry focusing on our objectives.  Turning these ideas into campaigns is a really exciting next step for us.” 

Says Suzie Lamborn (pictured above, centre), sales director at Val Morgan: “This is a fantastic competition which works twofold; to support a charity and promote creativity and strategy within the advertising industry which is burgeoning with talent.  A big round of congratulations and thanks to all the teams who competed, as well as the winning teams.  We are excited about the next round of the competition in Cannes.” 

Liz Richards (above, left) and Nick Dellabarca (above, right) of DDB are renewing their passports in anticipation of their trip to Cannes having taken out the film category. In media, Mitch Wiffin (right) and Qassem Naim (left) from FCB are dusting off their suitcases having won first place in the Media category.  Both teams are off to Cannes Festival of Creativity to represent New Zealand at the Young Lions global competition courtesy of Val Morgan Cinema Network.

Judge, Emily Beautrais, creative director, Clemenger BBDO Touchcast, said of the film entries: “The standout thing for me was that the winning piece focused on the positive. Many charities leverage people’s sympathy, but CatWalk’s key purpose is a positive, hopeful one. So in this case it made sense to make that hope the centre of the work, which will help it stand out from appeals for other causes. Overall I think the quality of entries was outstanding.

“There were so many beautifully crafted pieces, and more importantly, some brilliant and simple ideas. Every one of these young teams can be proud of what they achieved in 48 hours.”

Says Shane Bradnick, executive creative director, DDB: “This isn’t the first win for Nick and Liz, these show-offs won a trip to SXSW last year as part of another competition and Nick won a trip to Cannes a few years ago through the Val Morgan Young Lions competition.

“I’m super proud of our guys, they’re both brilliant and deserving winners and prove DDB is fostering the next crop of creative talent.”

Nicky Greville, commented on behalf of the judges at the winners announcement on the winning media entry, Battlepack: “Simplicity is harder than you think to achieve and these guys nailed a simple, strong and innovative narrative throughout their presentation.  A brave and differentiated strategy based on a pragmatic understanding of the audience.  The appeal of this idea was that it showcased that they were not only thinking of a way to continuously drive donations, but they were thinking globally for massive scale.  A genuinely innovative media idea that uniquely made donation an easy, positive experience while dramatising the charity’s mission.” 

Says Rufus Chuter, managing director, FCB Media: “Everyone at FCB’s stoked for Mitch and Q. They’re super smart, talented media thinkers that epitomise our values of restlessness and doing different. Look out Cannes.”

Lamborn extends her acknowledgement to the competition judges.

Says Lamborn: “So much time, energy and support was provided by our incredible jury line up. The Media jury thanks goes to Becs Bradley (former strategy director OMD), Nicky Greville (general manager Y&R Media), Rufus Chuter (managing director FCB Media), David McCallen  (head of strategy OMD) and the Film jury of Nat Knight (senior writer FCB), Emily Beautrais (creative director ClemengerBBDO Touchcast ), Simon Vicars (Colenso) and Brett Colliver (DDB).”

Since 1992 the Young Lions has been offered by the Cannes festival organisers with more than 12,000 competing around the world this year to win this coveted prize.  Last year was represented by approx. 75 countries with over 1,100 young lions attending the Festival.