Digging for gold: The creative partnership behind the Cannes-bound team

According to Shelby Harper and Zacharie Cloutier, they are “extremely compatible as creative partners.” Talking with them – seeing their inside jokes and their respect and admiration for each other’s skills – it shows. You can’t help but love how much they love working together.

“I’m very fortunate to have Shelby as a partner; she’s really great to work with. We both are very aligned, not only with how we approach things, but just hobbies, the way we view the world, which makes things very fun and easy to work with,” said Zacharie.

While they both have individual strengths – Zacharie at Leo Toronto as a junior art director and Shelby at the same agency as a copywriter – they teamed up to create, share and challenge each other’s work so their idea was bulletproof. Turned out, it was the best in the digital category at the Canadian Young Lions competition – sponsored by WPP Motion Entertainment – earning them gold and a trip to Cannes.

This year saw a record-breaking 796 individuals compete across seven categories: Marketers, Media, PR, Design, Print, Film and Digital – with 61 teams going for Digital. Their different strengths and levels of experience became a driving advantage. Zacharie had the “beginner’s luck,” not knowing what to expect. Shelby, coming into the competition for her third time, turned out to be the charm.

“I just want to do things, try it out, see where it goes. That’s always been kind of a philosophy of mine, let’s just do it, and then whatever happens, happens,” said Zacharie. That mindset led to what they now call “a very iconic moment.” After starting the initial 24-hour challenge at 9 a.m., they were still locked in at 2 a.m., Zacharie powering through mockups while Shelby reread the writeups.

“And I go, ‘Hey, man, if we think it’s rough now, if we win gold, we’re gonna have to do it again in France.’ And Zach slowly turns around in the chair, and he goes, ‘What are you talking about?’” Shelby recalled. “I was like, ‘Zach, do you not know that if you win this competition, you go to Cannes and do it again?’”

After laughing about it, they got back to work and submitted by 9 a.m. They agree Zacharie, not knowing the full extent of the global Young Lions competition until 2 a.m., was exactly what they needed.

“The fact that I kind of didn’t have time to process it, and could just focus on that idea, and the board, and the work kind of helped out, because it removed a layer of pressure,” said Zacharie.

The result of the challenge – which had the help of background K-Pop music – was Prompt Recycler. The concept came from noticing that asking AI about the environment has become second nature for Gen Z, without realizing that every new prompt quietly uses energy and water. Their solution was a shared library of environmental AI prompts curated by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada. Instead of generating a new response every time, users could be redirected to existing answers that are credible, informative and more sustainable.

“If 60 per cent of the questions that are asked to ChatGPT are search-based, and let’s say one to five per cent of those are about the environment, that could save the equivalent of 11 million water bottles every single year,” said Shelby.

The idea is also connected to something Jane Goodall herself spoke about before she passed away: using AI to help educate people about protecting local ecosystems. Saving a little bit of water can go a long way.

Although the two faced different challenges, they leaned on each other. Zacharie focused on making the concept visually appealing in a short amount of time. Shelby saw the work he was putting in and felt the weight of what could happen if there was a mistake in the words they were putting to the pitch.

“Zach is fantastic, and he works at a pace that is superhuman, and I always want to make sure we’re honouring our ideas and our partnership,” said Shelby.

For Zacharie, his favourite part was seeing Shelby celebrate. “Seeing Shelby staring at the certificate after with childlike wonder. I’m like, ‘seeing you that happy makes it all worth it, and that much better.’ Everyone kind of knows that gold feels really nice, no need to go on about that, but just seeing how it made the people around me feel was a plus for me,” said Zacharie.

For Shelby, it was seeing Zacharie finally take in the win. “Watching Zach finally lose his focus and actually be excited about it was the best,” said Shelby.