MANILA – The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is only a few days away. Let us get to know the young creatives who will be flying to France this June, courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, to represent the Philippines in the prestigious Young Lions competition.
Young Lions Marketers
Company:
Golden Arches Corporation
The Team:
Ada Almendras
Senior Product Manager
Ashley Santillan
Product Manager
“This is a complete surprise,” says Golden Arches Corporation’s Ada Almendras. Her partner, Ashley Santillan, shares the sentiment, “I knew about the “Inquirer: ‘Road to Cannes’ competition – I just didn’t know we were already in it…I thought it was a workshop!”
Working off a brief to “future-proof” the Inquirer brand, Almendras’ and Santillan’s presentation for their entry, ‘I am Inquirer’, saw the pair come out on top against 13 other teams. “Our idea was that this (digital age) isn’t the death of paper, because we live in the age of inquiry, which is what the brand stands for,” shared Almendras.
Having won, the pair is now very much aware of the stakes, and absolutely excited for the chance to prove themselves. “Of course,” notes Almendras, “there’s added pressure knowing that the Philippines has already won at the Young Lions Compeitition in the past.”
“It’s about telling a great story,” said Santillan, “and telling it in five minutes, and making it very engaging.”
Young Lions Creatives
Agency:
Publicis Manila
The Team:
Toby Fournier
Associate Art Director
Amanda Cruz
Senior Copywriter
“We ate!” laughs Publicis Manila’s Toby Fournier, on the winning insight he and partner Amanda Cruz came up with, “It was really simple…it’s like the old practice of vandalising posters of people we don’t like, and taking that online, giving people that chance to share their opinions on real stories and issues online.”
“And when people share their opinions, says Cruz, you achieve the traffic, readers, and metrics that were required by the brief.”
With the idea in place, the pair was able to submit their entry in record time, with enough left over to actually attend the seminars on the Kidlat program!
“One of the best pieces of advice we got was from our boss, Alvin Tucson says Cruz. “He told us to manage our time and give ourselves a deadline in terms of coming up with the idea…set a deadline so you can really work on (crafting) it.”
All told, the pair beat out 23 teams from 16 agencies to win the Inquirer’s ‘Road to Cannes’ competition.
“We just wanted to have fun and do something we could be proud of, even if we didn’t win.”
This story was first published on Issue 56 of adobo magazine.
