At the award ceremony of Days of Communication on Saturday, the winners of the first Young Lions Croatia competition were declared. Croatia’s first Young Lions contest was held in cooperation with UNICEF and sponsored by Erste Bank. Contestants were tasked to create a campaign for UNICEF’s program to support preschool education in Croatia, and the prestigious Grand Prix award and a trip to the festival Cannes Lions 2016 went to Tea Silvia Vlahović and Sanja Planinić from Bruketa & Žinić OM for their work “Rana Ptičica” (“Early Bird”).
The event was attended by 18 teams who had 24 hours to come up with campaigns in the categories of print, cyber, design, and 48 hours in the category film, and thus demonstrate their creativity, skills and knowledge and prove themselves on the national and potentially on a global level.
In addition to being an exciting competition for young creatives, Young Lions Croatia is also a humanitarian action because all produced materials are provided to UNICEF for use free of charge. The competition task was related to the UNICEF’s program to support preschool education in Croatia, which aims to increase the availability of quality kindergarten and pre-school services for all children in Croatia and provide equal opportunities for marginalized groups of children for enrollment in high-quality pre-school education.
Marin Ilej, communication associate at UNICEF said on this occasion: “Investing in early childhood development is the most cost-effective investment and the foundation for the progress of society. To make progress, it is necessary to provide high-quality pre-school education to exactly those children to whom it is least available today – children living on the margins of society. Good communication is the key to creating a positive atmosphere for change and therefore I wish to heartily thank these young talented people who have invested their ideas and skills in order to help provide a more equal footing for the most vulnerable children in Croatia.”
Part of the jury that selected the Grand Prix winner was Nina Pentek from the Erste Bank, who said: “Tonight we witnessed creativity, passion and great energy of young professionals from the marketing industry whose works have delighted us. The teams had a demanding task on their hands, to show their best in limited amount of time, and they have succeeded. Erste Bank supports young talents of the creative industries and we are extremely proud to be a part of this project. To the winners we wish every success in the global competition and in their future endeavors.”
Young Lions Croatia competition is part of the global competition Cannes Young Lions. Winners of the Croatian competition enter the global competition, where they will compete with peers from around the world. Competition Cannes Young Lions will be held in June 2016.
Following is the list of winners per categories:
- Print – Dalia Ćućija Perez and Rona Žulj, I to nije sve! – work: “Brojalica”
- Cyber – Tea Silvia Vlahović and Sanja Planinić, Bruketa&Žinić OM – work: “Rana ptičica”
- Design – Sandra Mrkšić and Kamelija Gerovac, McCann/Fahrenheit – work: “Potakni me da rastem”
- Film – Tomislav Šestak and Ivan Pavičić, Bruketa&Žinić OM – work: “Povezani u razvoju”.
