Epitaph Group Sends Young Lions Team to Cannes

Fresh off their Silver win in the Media category – sponsored by Snap Inc. – at the 2025 Canadian Young Lions Competition, Teryn Clapp and Anthony Da Rocha are heading to France for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, courtesy of Epitaph Group Inc. After competing separately in past years, the duo teamed up this year with one goal in mind: create an idea that couldn’t be ignored. They share their experience competing, what inspired their entry, and what they’re most looking forward to in Cannes. 

Give us a quick intro – who you are, where you work, and what you do. 

TC: Hello, I’m Teryn Clapp. I am an Integrated Planning Senior Specialist at Epitaph Group Inc. 

AD: Hi my name is Anthony Da Rocha! I am an Integrated Planning Specialist at Epitaph Group Inc. 

How did you first hear about the Young Lions competition, and what led you to enter? 

Both: We first heard about the Young Lions competition through Epitaph Group when we joined the team about three and a half years ago. Inspired by how much others at Epitaph had enjoyed participating when they were eligible, we decided to give it a try ourselves. Each of us had competed in the past two years with different partners, but this was our first time entering the competition as a team. 

What was your approach going into the competition? What inspired your entry? 

Both: Going into the competition, we applied what we’d learned from previous years and created a rough schedule for the day. Our goal was to keep momentum and avoid getting stuck on any one part of the process. While we didn’t follow the schedule to the letter, it was helpful to have a roadmap to guide our progress. We knew we wanted our idea to stand out to the jury, something that not only grabbed attention but had legs. The concept began with a simple thought: inserting a fictional entry into a Top 40 list, whether for songs, TV shows, or movies. From there, the idea kept growing until we landed on creating an entirely fake person and triggering an anosognosia effect across our audience, making them question their own memories.  

Your agency, Epitaph Group Inc, is sending you both to the Cannes Festival of Creativity — what are you most excited about, and what do you hope to bring back from the experience? 

Both: We’re incredibly excited and grateful to be heading to the Cannes Festival of Creativity with Epitaph Group Inc. For us, the most exciting part is being surrounded by some of the world’s most innovative thinkers and creatives, people who are pushing boundaries and redefining what great work looks like. We’re looking forward to being inspired not just by the work itself, but by the conversations, the energy, and the global perspectives that come with it. 

We want to absorb new ideas, fresh ways of thinking, and insights into how other teams approach challenges. Ultimately, we’re excited to take everything we learn and channel it into our work at Epitaph, raising the bar for ourselves and, hopefully, inspiring our team the way past attendees have inspired us. 

The Globe and Mail’s 2025 Cannes Young Lions Qualifying Competitions saw a record-breaking 784 individuals compete – an increase of 5% from last year – across seven categories: Marketers, Media, PR, Design, Print, Film and Digital.  Notably, this year’s shortlist features participants from coast to coast, marking one of the most regionally diverse cohorts the competition has seen to date. Both the Design and PR categories are new to Canada this year, with PR proudly sponsored by Edelman Canada. 

Each year, the Competition jury chairs select a non-profit charity as the subject of the competition briefs. This year’s selected charity was Baycrest Foundation, and the primary goal was to drive awareness and support for Baycrest’s groundbreaking work in aging and brain health, with a focus on encouraging key lifestyle changes that can help prevent cognitive decline 

Check out Teryn and Anthony’s 2025 Gold winning work here.