LIONS Scholarship will support more than 130 underrepresented members of the creative community and emerging talent with access to Cannes Lions
LIONS has announced the launch of the LIONS Scholarship, which is designed to support the next generation of talent. The scholarship offers a group of young people from around the world a fully funded place on the Cannes Lions Brand Marketers and Creative Academies, which will take place during the Festival in June.
The new initiative sits alongside a range of talent programmes which are part of LIONS’ drive to introduce more opportunities for underrepresented groups through fully funded talent programmes at Cannes Lions.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said, “We’ve spent 70 years helping to shape careers, foster connections, and platform the power of creativity on a global scale. As we look forward to the next 70 years, we will focus on creating opportunities, providing access, and nurturing the next generation of creative marketing leaders. As part of our mission to support those ‘in the making’ and drive progress for people, we’re opening up the Festival to more than 130 people from groups traditionally underrepresented in the creative industries. To mark our 70th edition, we’re introducing the inaugural LIONS Scholarship. This initiative is designed to increase the accessibility of Cannes Lions’ bespoke academies, which offer a curated education programme at the heart of the Festival.”
The LIONS talent programme includes a range of early career initiatives with the LIONS Academies and Young Lions Competitions designed to catapult young talent in their careers. Additionally, LIONS current talent accelerator programmes continue this year, including See It Be It, which aims to help achieve equal gender representation of creative directors and leaders.
Included within the wider talent programme are community-led initiatives which have been designed in partnership with the global creative industry. These include: a programme with The Black Executive CMO Alliance to bring Future Leaders from The BECA Playbook to Cannes; complimentary passes for the winners of the Perifa Education Programme which is designed for creatives from the Brazilian peripheries; support of the #CannesForAll initiative, launched by the Brixton Finishing School, DigiLearning Foundation and Lollipop Mentoring, with Festival access for their 12 talents; and a continued partnership with Cephas Williams to provide Black talent with Cannes Lions access and curated Festival programme.
Learn more on all the LIONS talent programmes, along with how to apply here
Cannes Lions will take place from 19-23 June in Cannes, France.
UAE creative agencies bag two gold, six silver and thirteen bronze lions at the recently concluded virtual Cannes Lions Festival 2021!
The Cannes Lions Festival 2021 drew to a close on Friday 25th June, which for the first time in history – due to the ongoing pandemic, took place online via the LIONS Live platform.
The UAE bagged 21 Lions in total for 2020 and 2021 – 2 Gold, 6 Silver and 13 Bronze Lions, across multiple categories, including newly introduced categories such as Sustainable Development Goals, Creative eCommerce and Creative Strategy.
This year’s winning agencies from the UAE included Impact BBDO, Memac Ogilvy, FP7 McCann, TBWA\RAAD, Mullenlowe MENA and VMLY&R.
Addressing the Cannes Lions Live audience during the Awards Show, Simon Cook, Managing Director, LIONS, said, “Over the past five days we’ve seen the return of the global creative benchmark, and the winning work that sets the bar for the entire industry. We’ve seen inspirational talks, taken part in learning programmes, celebrated creative excellence through our Award Shows and Debriefs – and come together as a community, united in the belief that creativity has the power to build business, shape society, and change the world for the better.”
2021 also witnessed 10 leading advertising and media professionals from the UAE represent the country as jury members at this year’s Festival.
Paul Shearer (Chief Creative Officer, Impact BBDO Dubai), Jennifer Fischer (Chief Innovation Officer, TBWA\RAAD) and Dida Atassi (Design Director, Accenture Interactive Middle East) were part of the Awards jury across Industry Craft, Innovations and Design categories respectively, and joining them as Shortlist jury members were Asad Rehman (Director Media and Digital Transformation, Unilever MENA) for Media, Amy Brill (Head of PR, M&C Saatchi) for PR, Vidya Manmohan (Founder and Creative Chairwoman, V4 Advertising LLC) for Brand Experience & Activation, Serena Abi Aad (Head of Content, Havas Dubai) for Film, Akanksha Goel (Founder & CEO, Socialize) for Social & Influencer, Alex Pineda (Creative Director, TBWA\RAAD) for Direct and Fabio Silveira (General Manager, Havas Dubai) for Outdoor.
Running parallel to the Cannes Lions Festival are the Young Lions Competitions (for young creative below the age of 30 years) and Roger Hatchuel Academy (a mentorship programme for university students in the field of creative communications).
Having won Gold at the UAE Young Lions Digital Competition 2021, Moemen Metwally and Fernando Montero from Memac Ogilvy Dubai represented the UAE at the International Young Lions Digital Competition.
Kamilla Bakytova – a student at American University in Dubai (AUD), pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication (majoring in advertising), was selected to represent the UAE at the prestigious Roger Hachuel Academy.
As the official UAE representatives of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Motivate Media Group and Motivate Val Morgan warmly congratulates all winning agencies, jury members and both Young Lions and Roger Hatchuel Academy participants from the UAE, and look forward to yet another successful Festival in 2022.
Sources: Cannes Lions and Campaign Middle East
