Cannes Lions: The Young Lions Diaries

Print: Luisa Jentzsch and Sandro Schmocker, Jung von Matt Limmat

Monday

After our arrival on Sunday, our week in Cannes started with an inspiration session on the large terrace of the area on Monday morning. In the afternoon we visited various beaches of Telecom, Meta and Co. We didn't wait long and went straight to many keynotes, including the talk by OpenAI. In the evening we visited the Award Show and were inspired by the Print category. The first award show was extremely impressive. 

Tuesday

We spent our first evening in Cannes relaxing. With plenty of energy and after a good night's sleep, we started the day with a morning run along the Croisette. After five kilometers we were awake and sweaty, so we went for a quick dip in the sea to cool off. During the day, we continued to explore the site and the lectures. In the evening, we received the briefing for the UN Women Unstereotype Alliance. Exciting. The briefing was about redefining the stereotype of male success for a young generation. We spent the evening and night brainstorming, researching and developing initial ideas. 

Wednesday

With little sleep, we started at 9 a.m. in the competition area and worked on our ideas. We placed the greatest focus on the concept. It was important to us that our idea was in place before we concentrated on implementation. The whole day flew by. We discussed our ideas with others and decided on a humorous print campaign. At 6:38 pm, in exemplary Swiss time management, we uploaded our work, including accompanying texts, and finalized the work. Afterwards, we celebrated our success first at the Jung von Matt Hostel and later attended a beach party.

Thursday

Relieved and overtired, we started Thursday very calmly. We caught up on some sleep and used the day to continue exploring the festival offerings. One highlight was the talk with Yes Theory about how to build a media empire as a creator, as we have been following their development for many years. In the evening, we were invited to Weischer's German Beach Party. When the party ended at midnight, we took over the dance floor and Manu and Sandro played a DJ set, back to back. That was one of the highlights of the week for everyone.

Friday

The award ceremony for the Young Lions Competition took place on Friday morning. We YADCers were able to celebrate being shortlisted twice in the Film and Media categories, which made us all very happy. Afterwards, we attended the last keynotes of the festival, including a talk by Danilo Boer, Global Creative Partner at FCB, and Anselmo Ramos together with Gaston Bigio, co-founder of Gut. In the evening, we attended the last award show and marveled at the best works in the film category. This was followed by the festival's big closing party, which ended with an impressive fireworks display.

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Direct: Natalie Friedrich from Jung von Matt Limmat, Joséphine Ducret from Publicis

Sunday

On Sunday evening, we flew to Nice an hour late with the other Young Creatives. When we arrived in Cannes, we toasted to our upcoming week with a first glass of rosé.

Monday

With the freshly printed festival pass around our necks, we went straight from one inspiring talk to the next. Our highlights: During a talk about the "snoop goes smokeless" campaign, we learned how important the interaction between client and agency is and that Snoop was anything but smokeless when shooting the TV commercial. In addition, Mike Cessario, founder and CEO of Liquid Death, gave insight and background information on why he sells water in nicely designed cans. With so many talks that we didn't want to miss, we didn't have lunch until 5 pm before we went to the award show for print and outdoor.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we not only spent a lot of time in talks, but also in the archive. All the case boards are on display there. Over lunch we grabbed some free food and snacks at Meta Beach before continuing with a talk by LEGO and Droga5. The fact that there are over 1000 possible solutions for such a simple briefing to build a duck from a few given Lego bricks is impressive. Before the next award show, we attended a live judging for the Titanum Lions. This is where work is presented live in front of the jury and the public audience. It was exciting that the jury often asked for figures and evidence to prove the results of the campaigns.

Wednesday

As Team Direct, which category is not represented in the Young Lions Competition, we were able to "relax" and enjoy the festival. However, with the large selection of talks, there was still that FOMO feeling of missing out on the best talks - we didn't manage to attend two talks at the same time.

A never-ending queue over two floors led us to the Lumière Theater, where we managed to get a seat to see Elon Musk up close. At Weischer Media's Swiss BBQ, we met familiar Swiss faces and exchanged our impressions so far. Our highlight of Wednesday happened outside the festival at a pool party. Materia suddenly stood 3 meters in front of us and surprised us with a surprise act.

Thursday

After a normal day on the festival site, we all went back to the award show together. Afterwards, we grabbed a takeaway dinner from Chaï Dee restaurant, the best Thai in Cannes, and made our way to German Beach. There, Manu and Sandro took over the DJ set - our highlight of the Thursday.

Friday

On Friday morning, we were delighted at the Young Lion Award ceremony for our film and media colleges with their two shortlist places. Afterwards, we went to various talks again. Friday's talk highlight for us was the presentation by GUT, last year's Agency of the Year.

In the evening, we attended the award show for the last time, where the Titanum and Glass Lions, among others, were presented. The short speeches by the jury presidents of the categories, during which we were able to experience the critical questions to the works during the live judging, were particularly exciting.

We would like to thank ADC Switzerland, Weischer Cinema, our agencies Publicis and Jung von Matt and everyone else involved for making this overwhelming week possible.

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Film: Francesca Kleinstück and Emil Maeder, Marty-Trezzini

Monday

On Monday morning, we set off to the festival building full of excitement and accidentally snuck into a 'company only' lounge while looking for free iced coffee. In the morning we listened to a series of inspiring talks with the other Young Lions, including how to deal with failure and create main character ideas. We used the afternoon to soak up as much knowledge as possible. The Liquid Death founder's talk was particularly impressive, as were the 44 tips on how we can win in 2029. At 7pm, we received the briefing from "The Unstereotype Alliance": a movie that shows young men that success can have many facets, beyond the ideal of muscles and money spread by social media. This started the 48-hour countdown to submission and we began our brainstorming session, which went well into the night.

Tuesday

Early in the morning, full of adrenaline and iced coffee (thanks, Meta Beach!), we continued. In the competition area we made and discarded what felt like 100 ideas until we decided on a route after lunch in a nice restaurant in the old town. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening writing the script and planning the production. Fortunately, we had the support of Team Switzerland: Beat Hürlimann from Werbewoche and Young Lions Joséphine Ducret and Fabrice Studer joined us as actors for our film.

Wednesday

As we were only able to shoot from midday and the deadline was the same evening, Wednesday was definitely the day with the most emotional highs and lows. Up until five minutes before submission, we were still busy editing and finalizing the texts. When we pressed "Submit", a huge weight fell from our shoulders, accompanied by a queasy feeling as to whether we had realized the right idea. But now it was out of our hands and we could finally enjoy the festival to the full.

Thursday

Our FOMO of the last few days was finally over. We ran from talk to talk, looked at the work in the archive and visited the various beaches. During a talk about humor, Emil even had to go on stage to perform a magic trick. In the evening, we celebrated our handover at the Award Show, the Sizzer Party and at the German Beach, where two of our Lions even DJ'd, and danced late into the night.

Friday

A little hungover, we went to the Terrace Stage at 10:30 a.m., where the Young Lions Competition awards ceremony was taking place. When "Switzerland" suddenly appeared on the film shortlist, we could hardly believe it. We would never have expected that. Overjoyed, proud and still flabbergasted, we spent our last day with more talks and ended the evening with Team Switzerland at the final award show. Finally, we celebrated our success and the unforgettable, overwhelming week at the legendary Cannes Lions Closing Party.

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Digital: Fabrice Studer and Manuel Silva from TBWA\Zurich

Monday

After arriving in Cannes yesterday, we started today directly with the inspiration sessions for the Young Lions. The presentation by Mark Pollard from Sweathead entitled "No more NPC ideas" was particularly interesting. As it was our first visit to Cannes, we first explored the Croisette and visited various beaches. The Meta and Spotify areas were particularly recommended, especially because of the free snacks and drinks. Before our briefing, we listened to a talk by David Droga and the CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati, at the Debussy Theatre.

At the briefing, we were introduced to "Project Dandelion", which aims to create a united voice for all climate crisis organizations. We first had to process this complex topic and took a short break at Telekom with snacks and juice. Then we continued with an intensive brainstorming session. Dinner in the restaurant also turned into a brainstorming session. Despite our promise to go to bed early, we continued working until after 3am.

Tuesday

After a short night, we only managed to sleep until 8 a.m. and recharged our batteries at breakfast. The morning took us to the campus, where we worked all day, including lunch. Thanks to the coffee delivery from Team Switzerland, we persevered and finally completed our work.

Wednesday

Today was the last hurdle: the presentation. After the stressful Tuesday, we allowed ourselves a little break before we were called into the jury room at lunchtime. In our opinion, the presentation went quite well. Immediately afterwards, Fabrice helped the film team as an extra. Later in the day, the shortlist announcement for Digital took place. The category had so many participating teams that two juries judged in the morning. All shortlisted teams then had to present again in front of the entire jury. Unfortunately, we didn't make it into the top seven out of 50 teams. Nevertheless, we gained experience. Dinner was planned with the TBWA delegation. We ended the evening by watching the Switzerland-Scotland game.

Thursday

The day began with a visit to the archive, followed by another interesting AI talk. We spent the afternoon at various rooftops and talks, where we gained new knowledge and enjoyed beautiful views. It was a shame that the competition was over for us, but it took the pressure off and we were able to really enjoy the festival. One highlight was the visit to the German Beach, where Manu and Sandro DJed.

Friday

We are used to short nights. Today was the award ceremony for the Young Lions Competition. There was also something to celebrate: two shortlists for Team Switzerland. An interesting talk by Danilo Boer, Global Creative Partner at FCB, followed. He spoke about "Five Steps to Make the Impossible". This was followed by the official closing of the Young Lions Competition with Happy Hour on the Terrace. Of course, we didn't want to miss the last award show of the festival and the closing party.

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Media: Franca Boeglin from Jung von Matt Limmat, Gabriela Oetliker from Jung von Matt Impact

Monday

We're already feeling a little tingly and the adrenaline is slowly rising - even though we haven't even picked up our festival pass yet. But when we were finally able to hang it around our necks, things really got going: in the morning we enjoyed two inspiring sessions for all Young Lions Competitors. The tips and tricks from Mark Pollard were particularly exciting. Here we also met the other competitors for the first time and wow (!), it was an intimidating crowd! In total there were 448 competitors in seven categories!
We're competing in the Media category and can't wait to let our creativity run wild. But until then, we used the rest of Monday to explore the festival site, collect freebies and listen to some great talks, including one from David Droga. Tomorrow we get our briefing - the excitement is building and we can't wait to get started!

Tuesday

After a moderately restful night (the air conditioning was freezing cold and none of us dared to turn it off), we started the day full of anticipation and energy - at 6:45 am! Together with 40 other festival participants, we completed a 5-kilometer run. The runner's high and a quick dip in the sea got us in top form for the day. Back at the festival site, we listened to inspiring speeches and talks. In the archive, we were inspired by the impressive shortlist works on display. The atmosphere is always a bubbling cauldron of creativity and emotion - you could literally feel it sweeping you away! It felt like we could conquer the world. Then the time had finally come: at 4pm we received our briefing. With trembling hands, we opened it and the competition officially started. Let's go! We didn't sleep today - but who needs sleep when great ideas keep you awake?

Wednesday

Soccer? No, we don't know enough about that. Gaming? No. We know even less about that! What do we do? Sex sells, so something with condoms? Or would we prefer underpants? Everyone needs them too...

Our ideation process was a rollercoaster ride - we explored approaches in all possible directions. In the end, we settled on a combination that we had less than no idea about: Soccer and gaming. Challenge accepted!

The brief in a nutshell: How do we reach Gen Z men and show them that there are different versions of successful men? Success is more than just money, sex and fast cars, as it is predominantly portrayed in the media.

After a short nap between 4 and 6 in the morning, we went back to the competition area to finalize our work. And we did it! At 5:44 pm (literally one minute before the deadline) we submitted our idea "True Ballers"!

Thursday

It's pitch time! On Thursday, it was time to convince the jury of "True Ballers". Because at the Cannes Young Lions, it's not just the creative idea that counts, but also a crisp and convincing performance. And a performance that stays in the memory. Our game plan for Thursday is therefore: polish the story and practise, practise and practise again.

After 25 other teams had already presented, we finally got started. We were called, escorted into the room and had to start our pitch straight away. As quickly as the pitch started, it was already over. Within the 5 minutes, however, we managed to put on a great team performance, impress the jury and make them laugh with a loud "Wohoooo".

After the pitch was before the party. Together with the other Young Lions, we went to German Beach in the evening, where we toasted each other with a few glasses of rosé. However, the absolute highlight came when Sandro and Manuel took over the DJ booth and really got the party going. When it was over at 01:00, we went to the Sizzers party, where we partied until the early hours of the morning.

Friday

With a little sleep but a lot of anticipation, we went to the Cannes Young Lions awards ceremony on the Terrace Stage. The shortlist as well as the bronze, silver and gold winners were announced for each category. As soon as Media was announced, the pulse started to race. And then suddenly the time had come. True Ballers had made it onto the shortlist, putting "Team Switzerland" in the top 6 - yay! After the award ceremony, we listened to the last talks. Then it was off to the big awards ceremony in the evening at the Lumière Auditorium, where the best of the best were honored. Pure inspiration! We spent the rest of the evening at the Cannes Lions closing party. We toasted and celebrated together once again.