YouTube and the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival have today announced that Adeline Chew (27) from Malaysia and Guy Dayan (27) from Israel have won the viral ad competition to promote Oxfam’s climate change campaign and will now become ‘Team YouTube’, the 39th team competing in the 2009 Young Lions Film Competition.
On 15th May, 2009, Oxfam was unveiled as the competition’s charity partner and unveiled a brief for young creatives across the world to create a short ad of up to one minute on YouTube to promote their climate change campaign. Creatives were given 48 hours to submit their ad and then had a further two weeks to make their YouTube ad go viral by any means necessary.
The competition received 692 entries and over 100,000 votes in two weeks. A panel of worldwide creative leaders have been assessing the quality of the ads over the last week and have selected Adeline and Guy as the winners based upon their ads’ creativity, number of views and video ratings. They will now unite as ‘Team YouTube’ and will receive an all expenses paid trip to Cannes to attend the International Advertising Festival and compete as the 39th team in the prestigious Young Lions Film competition.
• See Adeline’s video entitled ‘Listen, don’t watch‘
• Watch Guy’s video entitled ‘The YouTube climate thermometer‘
Anna Bateson, head of marketing for YouTube in EMEA, said: “We are delighted with the creative community’s response to this competition. Around 700 young creatives from across the world used YouTube as a way to create innovative and powerful ads for Oxfam’s climate change campaign and then made it go viral. We are now sending a unique YouTube team to the Young Lions Film Competition where they will be competing with the finest young creative minds.”
Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy Group UK and one of the contest judges, said: “It is chastening to all of us to see that good ideas and excellent executions can be created in 48 hours.”
Nicky Wimble, Oxfam’s Creative Communications Specialist, said: “We at Oxfam were amazed by the overwhelming participation of creatives from around the world. This once again shows that citizens in every country recognise the urgency and importance that leaders sign an ambitious, fair and safe climate deal at Copenhagen.”
Launched in 2006, The Young Lions Film Competition is an integral part of the week-long International Advertising Festival which sees teams of two from 38 countries aged 28 or under, who have just 48 hours to shoot and edit a one minute commercial on behalf of the client – a charity or not-for-profit organisation. The experience is intense but winning can be rewarding both personally and professionally.
Oxfam was chosen as the competition’s charity partner because of their multi-national presence and appeal and because climate change is an easily understood and topical issue which would inspire creativity.
The YouTube Contest Judges were
Rory Sutherland – Vice Chairman, Ogilvy One (United Kingdom)
Alexandre Gama – Chief Creative Officer and Founder, NeoGama BBH (Brazil)
Stéphane Xiberras – President and Executive Creative Director, BETC Euro RSCG (France)
Nick Law – Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer North America, R/GA (USA)
Yuya Furukawa – Executive Creative Director, Dentsu (Japan)
Ariel Abramovici – Copywriter, BBDO Argentina (2008 winner Young Lions Film competition)
Bruno Acanfora – Art Director, BBDO Argentina (2008 winner Young Lions Film competition)
About YouTube
YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, CA and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.
About the 56th International Advertising Festival 21-27 June 2009 in Cannes, France
The International Advertising Festival – Cannes Lions – is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. More than 10,000 registered delegates from 94 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries attend this event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media mix, discuss industry issues and network with one another. Over 28,000 ads from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy, honouring the most creative film, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion, integrated and Titanium advertising, as well as the best media and direct marketing solutions. The PR category launches in 2009. A unique programme of high-profile seminars, workshops and keynote speakers are also presented by some of the biggest names in the industry. For further information, please visit www.canneslions.com.
