Cub Scouts

Winners of the UAE Young Lions PR competition Viviana Villasmil and Angelina Hedra, from Weber shandwick, travelled to Cannes to see what it was all about. Here’s what they found out

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After a week of cut-throat competition, creative stimulation and bucketfuls of rosé by the lovely French Riviera, these two Young Lions have made it home – and just barely. It’s safe to say we are reeling from an agonising hangover, but not the kind that’s brought on by the lavish soirees we frequented, but rather from the creativity withdrawals that come with saying goodbye to the largest global gathering of creative professionals.

We began our journey to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this past March when we competed for – and won – the opportunity to represent the MENA region’s PR industry at the Young Lions competition in Cannes. The Young Lions is open to creatives under 30 who wish to take a stab at representing their home talent (across a range of creative fields) on the global stage. Locally, we were given 24 hours to crack a brief and develop a campaign that would capture hearts and minds – a pattern that was repeated by the judges in Cannes. As we begin to get back into our Dubai groove, we wanted to share our five main Cannes Lions takeaways:

1. The Young Lions experience