Two teams from Leo Burnett to vie at the Cannes Young Lions Competition

Four winners for Young Lions Design & Print categories from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka – (From Left to Right) Amrit Paulraj & Falul Hallaj, Winners Young Lions Design category, Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka, Aysha Musthafa and Jayana Silva – Winners, Young Lions Print category

Two teams comprising a total of four Burnetters were recently selected to represent Sri Lanka at the Young Lions competitions at the 64thCannes Lions International Festival of Creativity which will take place from 17-24 Junein Cannes, France.

Burnetters Amrit Paulraj and Falul Hallaj of Leo Burnett Sri Lanka won the local competition to represent Sri Lanka to compete in the Young Lions Design category, whilst Aysha Musthafa and Jayana Silva won the title in the Print category. 

A local competition to select the winners was recently organised by Metal Factor, the Sri Lanka representative for the Cannes Lions in partnership with the International Advertising Association (IAA), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM).

This year 74 Young professionals from the industry participated at the local competition. At this competition these two teams comprising Falul and Amrit and Aysha and Jayana succeeded in winning the Sri Lanka title to represent the country at the young Lions competition in Cannes, France which is termed the Olympics of the advertising industry. These two teams will now travel to Cannes, France to represent Sri Lanka in the Young Lions Design and Young Lions Print competitions where they will be challenged to respond to a brief within 24 hours with an innovative solution. 

Four winners for Young Lions Design & Print categories from Leo Burnett Sri Lanka – (From Left to Right) Jayana Silva & Aysha Musthafa – Winners, Young Lions Print category, Amrit Paulraj & Falul Hallaj, Winners Young Lions Design category

Five teams of Sri Lankan marketing communication professionals will represent the country at the festival. The Sri Lankan teams will go on to compete in Cyber, Design, Media, Print and Film categories of the Young Lions Competitions at Cannes against the best marketing communications teams from around the world. Two young professionals from Nestle will compete at the Young Marketers competition as well. 

Commenting on the selection of the young Burnetters, Ranil de Silva – Managing Director, Leo Burnett Sri Lanka, stated,“I am extremely proud of our two winning teams. This is the first time that an agency has secured two places to represent Sri Lanka. These four Burnetters from Sri Lanka will now represent the country at what is termed the Olympics of advertising – the Cannes Young Lions competitions. After their success at the local competition we have groomed them, trained them and coached them in the last six weeks to prepare them to face the challenge at Cannes. I am confident they have what it takes to win a metal in Cannes. The entire team of Burnetters in Sri Lanka joins me to wish our four young stars the very best of luck. We hope they will truly reach for the stars!”

Founded in 1954, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is an eight-day programme that focuses on creative inspiration, celebration, education and networking. Over 15,000 delegates from around 100 countries attend the festival, making it the only truly global meeting-place for communications professionals to connect, share and discover the latest advancements, trends and innovations in the industry. The most coveted creative accolades, The Lions, are also judged and presented at the festival. Over 40,000 submissions in 23 categories are rigorously reviewed by respected industry professionals before the highly coveted awards are presented. 

As Leo Burnett celebrates its 18thyear in Sri Lanka and looks ahead to the future, the agency is proud to celebrate the success of it young professionals who would define the rules of the advertising industry in the future. As an agency we will continue to focus on our Human Kind approach to help build powerful brands and meaningful partnerships with our wide client portfolio while delivering gratifying results and gaining peer recognition in the industry.