These Rising Creatives Won U.S. Cannes Young Lions Competition

The U.S. Cannes Young Lions Competition has its newest set of winners hailing from TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, Weber Shandwick, Initiative and FCB New York.

The 2024 winners will represent the U.S. in the global competition during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June. The competition is growing in the U.S. with more 500 teams ultimately entering 333 official entries, an increase of 17% from 2023.

National CineMedia, which supports the Young Lions program in the U.S., has brought in more brands to support the initiative, including new travel sponsor Delta Airlines. The company will provide flights for winners so that they can represent America in the global competition at Cannes. ADWEEK continued its support of the next generation of creatives as the media partner for Young Lions.

The winning teams include:

• Digital: Jessica Nugent and Rachel Findlay, TBWA\Chiat\Day LA
• Film: Emma LeMay and John Chavez, Weber Shandwick
• Media: Cara Miller and Christian Savino, Initiative
• PR: Morgan Biles and Lena Church, Weber Shandwick
• Print: Chloe Bayhack and Victoria Rocha, FCB New York

This year’s film winners are now two-time winners of the Young Lions competition, as LeMay and Chavez took home top honors in the PR category last year. For the first time, the nonprofit partner is using work from the competition. It’s implementing elements from Riya Gupta and Payton Cianfarano’s third-place winning digital entry in a campaign next month.

“We redesigned the Young Lions competition experience two years ago to raise awareness, drive greater participation, and deepen industry support to help advance and amplify young, diverse talent in advertising,” said Amy Tunick, CMO at NCM.

This year’s brief

The Cannes Young Lions competition asked creatives to develop a campaign for the group’s 2024 nonprofit partner Gold House, which produces an A100 List to honor the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders across business. The creatives needed to design a campaign that focused on engaging Gen Z in one of five categories: digital, film, media, PR or print.

“Winning is a mindset. It requires self-belief, grit and focus on progress. More than half of the competition will come down to framing the challenge and preparing for the unexpected,” said Laura Maness, global CEO of Grey. She’ll serve as the advisor to the winners of the digital category.

Digital honoree Jessica Nugent told ADWEEK before learning she’d won that winning “would put into perspective all the hard work that my partner and I poured into this industry over the last five years. It’s a testament to where we are with our careers in the digital space.”

Nugent’s winning entry created an A100 Social Night Market that partners with local Asian restaurants to turn the A100 list into a social menu of 100 meals featuring the honorees’ favorite dishes.

Nugent and her partner, Rachel Findlay, are both daughters of immigrant parents and viewed the brief as what representation means to them after they both grew up in a predominantly white state. They asked themselves what’s impactful to their culture, with Findlay, as a Filipino, viewing “food as social” and “it makes sense to [use food] to say who you are.”

Mentoring the next generation

NCM is giving Team USA a boost in Cannes providing mentorship, webinar content from brands and agencies, and more resources for young creatives. In Cannes, there will be a U.S. Lions Community welcome reception and celebration.

A team of advisors will support and mentor the winning groups as they advance onto the global competition. The mentors include:

• Digital: Laura Maness, global CEO, Grey
• Film: Jonathan Johnsongriffin, vp, global brand and creative, Google
• Media: Jaclyn Ruelle, vp, head of brand, Papa Johns
• PR: Chaucer Barnes, CMO, Translation
• Print: École Weinstein, global creative lead, Delivery, Uber

“I’ve always been most proud of being able to mentor and shape the next generation. As a lifelong learner, it’s important to me that we can lift up the future of our industry and find ways to elevate their craft and talent, getting them in front of the best agencies and brands in the world,” Jaclyn Ruelle, vp and head of brand at Papa Johns, told ADWEEK.

You can view all the winners and their work on NCM’s website.