Mumbai: USA TODAY, official U.S. representative to the International Advertising Festival in Cannes, and co-sponsors AKQA, Atmosphere BBDO and Greenberg Kirshenbaum have announced the winners of the 2008 Young Lions "Team USA" competitions.
2008 Young Lions categories and Team USA winners are:
–Press: Josh Fell and Brandt Lewis, Deutsch L.A.
–Cyber: Chris Bailey, Bagby and Company & Ferro Boyd of bep Interactive Chicago
–Film: David Brown, R/GA and Jeremy Diessner, McCann S.F.
–Media: Alyssa Burgess and Emily Rose, OMD Chicago
"As the official US representative to the International Advertising Festival in Cannes we are always excited to see the results of the Young Lions competitions," said USA TODAY president and publisher Craig Moon.
"This year’s Team USA winners are an immensely talented group of young media professionals and we look forward to watching them compete against their international peers."
The 2008 Team USA competition included teams from agencies across the US with over 140 teams registering and 201 total entries. The Media category was a new category for 2008 and received 79 total entries. All competitors worked from the same brief and were tasked to build awareness of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry program, whose goal is to eradicate hunger for all US children.
Four teams have been chosen to represent the US and compete in the Young Lions competitions during the International Advertising Festival in Cannes with all expenses paid. Twenty international teams will compete in the Film and Media competition.
Thirty teams will compete in Cyber and Print. Teams for the three creative competitions (Cyber, Film and Print) consist of an art director and a copywriter. The team for the Media competition consists of two media planning executives.
"The Young Lions Competition understands the importance of fostering young talent that can create great content," said Atmosphere BBDO chairman and chief creative officer Andreas Combuechen. "Atmosphere is excited to be a sponsor of the film portion of this competition and to recognize and reward this year’s winners. Clearly, there is no shortage of bright, young talent in the US."
Film entries were judged online by Andreas Combuechen, Atmosphere BBDO; Shepard Fairey, Studio Number One; Evan Fry, Crispin Porter + Bogusky; Greg Hahn, BBDO NY; Hank Perlman, Hungry Man and Mikal Reich, Dead As We Know It.
"I am truly honored and thrilled to be the Chair for selecting young creatives for such a dynamic category that has so profoundly influenced, in less than five years, the rest of the advertising industry of the last fifty years," said AKQA global creative director Rei Inamoto. "It is a pleasure for AKQA to sponsor the Cyber competition and we hope it inspires ‘Young Lions’ throughout the US to enter in the future."
The Cyber competition was judged online by Rei Inamoto, AKQA; Arturo Aranda, Atmosphere BBDO; Jerome Austria, AKQA; Marina Gokman, Ogilvy; Ali Grayeli, Organic; Richard Ting, R/GA and Mat Zucker, Agency.com.
"For us at Greenberg Kirshenbaum, one of the real high points continues
to be calling the winning team to tell them to pack their bags for Cannes and sharing their excitement," said Greenberg Kirshenbaum partner Susan Kirshenbaum.
The print winners were chosen by Arthur Bijur, Cliff Freeman & Partners; Keith Cartwright, Weiden + Kennedy; Marty Cooke, SS+K; Jan Jacobs, Johannes & Leonardo; Ted Royer, Droga5 and Kash Sree, JWT.
