The U.S. Representative for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity National CineMedia have announced the launch of the 2023 Young Lions Competition. The 2023 Young Lions competition opens the door to up-and-coming creative professionals, with an intense focus on smart, strategic, original ideas across disciplines, and an increased emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is the most prestigious creative competition for today’s rising stars in the creative, media, public relations, and digital industries.
For the past eight years, NCM has been the U.S. Representative for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which includes leading the U.S. Young Lions Competition.
This year, NCM is launching its first Young Lions campaign, Represent!, to strengthen participation and further elevate young, diverse professionals who benefit from this program. The campaign encourages today’s creative trailblazers aged 30 and under to showcase their talents and put the advertising, media, and marketing industries on notice, representing themselves, their agencies, and the very best of what the next generation has to offer.
“Our new Young Lions Campaign, Represent!, is all about giving young talent the opportunity to challenge themselves and be celebrated,” said Amy Tunick, NCM’s chief marketing officer. “We love how the Young Lions program aligns with NCM’s young, diverse moviegoing audiences and are excited to deepen our investment and collaboration with Cannes Lions to further market and promote the next generation of creative leaders.”
For the first time, NCM will be donating in-cinema national media to support Represent! across its network of theatre – AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Harkins and more than fifty additional affiliates. The flight will air a 60-second spot featuring Young Lions competitors and Team USA, including the 2023 winners across the Film, Digital, Media, PR and Print competitions. It will run in movie theatre across the country in June to support Team USA in advance of their journey to Cannes, France for the global Young Lions competition. The spot serves to make Young Lions participants famous on the big screen, promoting and celebrating all their efforts leading up to the international festival.
NCM is also now offering new ways for brands and agencies to get involved with the Young Lions program with customized, integrated sponsorship packages to further support and fund the Young Lions experience.
Jenni Middleton, Lions senior vice president/editor-in-chief said, “We are delighted to be bringing the Young Lions competitions back to their home in Cannes this year. The competitions really are the engine room of the industry and highlight what matters most to the next generation of creative talent; there is nothing else that spotlights fresh talent on such a global scale and it’s always incredibly humbling to see how many careers are fueled by this opportunity – and how many future Lions winners are inspired by this program. For 2023 we’ve reimagined the on-site experience to ensure that it delivers on learning, connection, and celebration as requested by our Young Lions community. Alongside this, the work that NCM is doing to elevate the competitions is fantastic to see and we are grateful to their commitment.”
Each Young Lions winner is granted a fully comped Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity experience (travel, accommodations and passes) thanks to U.S. Young Lions sponsors and key agency partners: Film – Pereira & O’Dell; Digital – Digitas; Media – UM; PR – Weber Shandwick; Print – NCM.
Registration is open through February 3 at https://canneslions.ncm.com/young-lions.