2020/2021 U.S. Cannes Young Lions Winners Announced

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National CineMedia (NCM), the U.S. representative to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, is proud to present the winning teams of the 2020/2021 U.S. Young Lions competitions. Close to 500 entries were submitted this year from teams of young professionals working for advertising, digital, media, creative, and PR agencies and new this year, in-house marketing teams.

2020/2021 U.S. Cannes Young Lions Winning Teams (all of the winning campaigns can be viewed here.):

• Digital: Vanessa de Beaumont – DAVID & Helen Rieger – MullenLowe
• Film: Eduardo Balloussier – Grey New York & Nico Cortinove – Phenomenon
• Marketer: Melissa Friedman – LiveNation & Abby Tompkins – Klarna
• Media: Megan Dacey – Mindshare & Ann Kelsey – Mindshare
• PR: Caitlin Corcoran – Mission & Mica Keeney – Mission
• Print: Amari Lilton – Facebook & Ariana Pierre Yanes – Area 23

2020/2021 U.S. Cannes Young Lions 2^nd and 3^rd Place Teams:

• Digital – 2^nd Place: Meg Nuckolls – VMLY&R & Kenzie Tubbs – H&R Block
• Digital – 3^rd Place: Belen Aragon – TBWA\Chiat\Day & Jilly Ko – TBWA\Chiat\Day
• Film – 2^nd Place: Christina Swan – Digitas & Danny Weilandt – Digitas
• Film – 3^rd Place: Samantha Hodian – Digitas & Reed Holtzman - Digitas
• Marketer – Runners-Up: Katie Price – Thrive Market & Caroline Zapatero – Peloton Interactive
• Media – 2^nd Place: Sydney Chaiken – OpenMind & Emily Quinn – Initiative
• Media – 3^rd Place: Megan Bradley – Mindshare & Megan Fowler – Mindshare
• PR – 2^nd Place: Andrea Corasanti – Weber Shandwick & Louisa Hager – Weber Shandwick
• PR – 3^rd Place: Leah Eser – E&J Gallo Wine & Mario Mejia – Hotwire
• Print – 2^nd Place: Isabella Guardia – Leo Burnett & Mariana Guarin – Leo Burnett
• Print – 3^rd Place: Kristen Coconis – Mosaic & Bryan Miguel – Havas

Each of the winning teams will compete (virtually or in-person) as “Team USA” in the global Young Lions competition at the 67^th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications, taking place from June 21-25, 2021.

The teams were challenged to develop a creative and innovative campaign in their respective categories that would raise awareness for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a national nonprofit organization that works to end childhood cancer by driving targeted and innovative research with measurable results in an accelerated time frame. The campaign goals were to raise awareness of CureSearch within the corporate community, with a focus on identifying and engaging potential corporate partnerships to generate an additional $2 million in support over the course of the next 18 months. The campaign also aimed to educate potential donors on the urgent need for childhood cancer funding and CureSearch’s unique and measurable impact in the pediatric cancer space.

Kay Koehler, CEO, CureSearch notes that, "As the only children's cancer nonprofit focused solely on accelerating the development of new treatment options for kids, CureSearch was thrilled to be selected to participate in the Young Lions competition. Given our limited marketing budget, it's been extremely valuable and inspiring to see these brilliant young teams compete and create engaging campaigns to build awareness of the current treatment protocols for children with cancer – treatments which are often 30 years old – and to drive new support for our critical mission. We are also most appreciative of the time, effort, and energy the esteemed judges generously gave to the 45 children diagnosed with cancer every day."

Cliff Marks, President of National CineMedia (NCM), added, “The work and the compassion exhibited by the Young Lion participants was extraordinary and will benefit CureSearch, the families, and most importantly, the kids, for years to come. NCM is thrilled to be able to bring so much brilliant thought and executable ideas to a charity that is fighting to reduce childhood cancer and give so many families the hope to see their kids live happy, healthy lives.”

A special thanks to the 2020/2021 U.S. Young Lions sponsors for their continuous involvement and generous support of this year’s competitions: Digitas for Digital, Pereira & O’Dell for Film, FCB for Marketer, UM for Media, Weber Shandwick for PR, National CineMedia (NCM) for Print. Getty Images provided access to their Creative Insights microsite for imagery to be used in some of these Young Lions entries.

NCM would also like to thank the industry expert judges who scored the 2020/2021 submissions:

• Digital: Vladimir Anichkin, PWC; Jerry Canning, NCM; Charlotte Cochran, Initiative; Joao Coutinho, VMLY&R; Molly Crawford, Digitas; Craig Elimeliah, VMLY&R; Adam Gilbert, Initiative; Nikki Hawke, Prohaska Consulting; Jeff Hirsch, Pubmatic; Nathalie Huni, Digitas; Kevin Hunt, SpotX; Oliver Joyce, Mindshare; Harsh Kapadia, MRM; Dwayne Koh, Digitas; Sue Kohm, R/GA; Jeff Matisoff, Eightbar; Lara Mehanna, NCM; Orr Orenstein, Aki Technologies; Mark Philip, Groupe Connect; Nick Reggars, Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Peter Woods, 360i

• Film: Jason Apaliski, Pereira & O’Dell; Chris Barnes, NCM; Katie Brinkworth, BBDO; Rob Lambrechts, Pereira & O’Dell; Myra Nussbaum, DDB Chicago; Matt Reinhard, OKRP; Garrick Schmitt, Essence Global

• Marketer: Samira Ansari, FCB; Brendon Cooke, FCB; Susan Credle, FCB

• Media: JP Aguirre, UM; James Allen, Carat; Amy Armstrong, Initiative; Kate Bower, Spark Foundry; Rachel Brook, Mediacom; Pele Cortizo-Burgess, Initiative; Christine Chen, Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Matt Denerstein, Mindshare; Kim Einan, StarcomWW; Craig Ellis, Resolution Media; E.T. Franklin, Spark Foundry; Mason Franklin, UM; Jason Hartley, 360i; Kseniia Kalashnyk, Dentsu Luxe; Cammy Keiler, Havas NA; Danielle Koffer, Mindshare; Jennifer Kohl, VMLY&R; Lynn Lewis, UM; Eve LeShaw, UM; Jason Lim, Mediacom; Joe Maceda, Mindshare; Greg Manago, Mindshare; Leah Meranus, 360i; Autumn Nazarian, Mindshare; Chris Portella, UM; Erin Quintana, UM; Tracy Quitasol, OMD; Alex Ryan, Initiative; Alex Siddal, Hearts & Science; Benjamin Vendramin, Mediacom; Ben Winkler, TripleLift; Amy Worley, VMLY&R;

• Print: Soham Chatterjee, Leo Burnett; Aaron Evanson, VMLY&R; Christine Gignac. W+K NY; Jeff Goeke, NCM; Becky Honeyman, Source Code Communications; Menno Kluin, 360i; Lauren Naima, FCB Health; Myra Nussbaum, DDB Chicago; Stephanie Plenner, NCM; Bernardo Romero, The Bloc; Jameson Rossi, Deutsch Chicago; Jeff Rozman, Deutsch NY

• PR: Michael Gonda, McDonald’s; Gail Heimann, Weber Shandwick; Gail Horwood, Kellogg’s; Kim Hunter, Lagrant Communications; Ellen Mardiks, Golin

About the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2020/2021 U.S. Young Lions Competition

The 2020/2021 U.S. Young Lions competition was open to teams of two professionals aged 30 years or younger: born after June 22, 1988. The winning teams will be sponsored to attend (virtually or in-person) the Cannes Lions Festival June 12-15, 2021 to participate in the global Young Lions competitions, showcasing their talent globally by competing against teams from all over the world. Winners of the Cannes global competitions will receive free registration and accommodations to attend the following year’s Cannes Lions Festival. For more information, visit http://canneslions.ncm.com/young-lions.

Due to the cancellation of the 2020 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the winners from the 2020 U.S. Young Lions Competition are eligible to compete either virtually or in-person at the 2021 Festival. There were no 2021 U.S. Young Lions competitions.

About National CineMedia (NCM)

National CineMedia (NCM) is America’s Movie Network. As the largest cinema advertising network in the U.S., we unite brands with the power of movies and engage movie fans anytime and anywhere. NCM’s Noovie pre-show is presented exclusively in 57 leading national and regional theater circuits including AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (a subsidiary of Cineworld Group PLC, LON: CINE). NCM’s cinema advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience engagement with over 20,600 screens in over 1,600 theaters in 190 Designated Market Areas® (all of the top 50). NCM Digital goes beyond the big screen, extending in-theater campaigns into online and mobile marketing programs to reach entertainment audiences. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI) owns a 48.0% interest in, and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com and www.noovie.com.

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