The Young Lions Competitions are often dubbed the “Olympics of Advertising,” and to help competitors get competition weekend ready, we’ve been hosting pre-competition training sessions for Media, Marketers, PR, and Design.
While each session is tailored to its specific category, many of the insights, advice, best practices and inspiration are universally applicable. We’re excited to share the presentation decks and recordings with all seven competition categories.
TRAINING SESSION INTRODUCTIONS
Marcin Zerek, Head of Trade Marketing at The Globe and Mail kicked off each session sharing details and stats about the competition, along with the new AI guidelines for 2025. He also bragged how Canada ranks #2 overall globally for Young Lion medals. The training sessions are definitely worth the time!
To see Marcin’s Young Lions Intro deck simply click on the image below, or use the Download button located immediately below the image to save a copy.
MEDIA TRAINING SESSION
The first training session was held on February 12, 2025.
Presenting for the session:
Shannon Lewis, Media Co-Chair and President, Canadian Media Directors’ Council
A passionate and driven executive communications leader, with 22+ years of international experience in the Advertising, Media and Communications industries. Consistently recognized as a highly motivated and transformational leader with accolades including Canadian Business RBC SME Top 25 Women to Watch.
Brook Leland, Media Co-Chair and Managing Partner, Jungle Media
Has a reputation for her award-winning media work, partnering with such clients as General Mills, Coca-Cola, Nike, IKEA, Toyota and Nordstrom. She has also seen success internationally, with Cannes Lions for IKEA and Nike as well as an Effie award for work done on IKEA. She was a member of the Cannes Media Jury in 2022.
Mike Rumble, Founder, Chief Strategy Officer at Epitaph Group Inc.
Securing Mike as a featured guest was a major coup. He shared invaluable tips, advice, and insights on dissecting a brief. Be sure to check out his slides!
2024 Media Gold Winners
Alphée Lamothe and Gabriel Lafond, both Media Strategists from Cossette Media, were on hand for a Q&A session. To see their Gold-winning work, click here. You can click here to read about their experiences, from browsing Cannes Lions case studies to flexing their creative muscles and the challenges of creating work for an international audience.
Unfortunately, due to a (major) technical issue the recording isn’t available, but we do have the presentation deck. Simply click on the image below, or use the Download button located immediately below the image to save a copy.
MARKETERS TRAINING SESSION
The Marketers session was held a week later on February 19, 2025.
Presenting for the session:
Susan Irving, Marketers Chair, Chief Marketing Officer, Kruger Products Inc.
An accomplished marketer, Susan has been recognized with several industry accolades including CMAs, Cassies, Cannes Lions, Effies, The Bessies, Clios, Media Innovation Awards and Canadian New Media Awards. She was also among Marketing Magazine’s prestigious Top 30 under 30, Canada’s Strategy Magazine 2020 Marketer of the Year and the Canadian Marketing Association 2021 Marketer of the Year.
One of her top tips for Marketers: have your brand book ready at your side!
Aaron Nemoy, Marketing Jury Member, Founder and CEO, Crowdiate
Aaron was part of the winning team in the inaugural Young Lions Marketers competition and in 2015 was recognized with the ‘Marketer on the Rise’ award by the AMA Marketing Hall of Legends.
He shared these links for inspiration:
Get inspired with Cannes Lions winning work: https://lovetheworkmore.com/
Idea generation tools for creative professionals: https://deckofbrilliance.com
2024 Marketer Gold Winners
Jenn Bailey, Digital Marketing Supervisor at McDonald’s was on hand for a Q&A. Her partner Nick Carson, Manager, Partnership Marketing at Brizi was traveling in Australia and unable to participate. Together they won Canadian Gold and were shortlisted globally. To see their Canadian Gold-winning work, click here. You can also click here to read their key takeaways and highlights on their journey to the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
We have both the presentation deck and recording available. To see the Marketers training deck simply click on the image below, or use the Download button located immediately below the image to save a copy.
MARKETERS TRAINING RECORDING
PUBLIC RELATIONS TRAINING SESSION
PR is a new category for the 2025 competition. The session took place on February 20, 2025.
Presenting for the session:
Eva Salem, PR Co-Chair, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Brand Canadian Tire Corporation.
Eva was named among WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2022, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business: 2020 Canada’s Best Executives, awarded 2022 marketer of the Year by Strategy Magazine and voted Marketer of the Year by the Canadian Marketing Association in 2023
Shauna Roe, PR Co-Chair, Vice President, Creative Director, Canada, Edelman Canada
She was stuck on an airplane and had to miss the presentation but we thought it was important to introduce your category Co-Chair. She is an internationally-awarded creative with over a decade of experience in the advertising and PR industry and is currently a VP and Creative Director at Edelman Canada.
They shared a few very powerful, creative and inspiring work examples:
We have both the presentation deck and recording available. To see the PR training deck simply click on the image below, or use the Download button located immediately below the image to save a copy.
PR TRAINING RECORDING
DESIGN TRAINING SESSION
Design is a new category for the 2025 competition. The session took place on February 25, 2025.
Presenting for the session:
Stephanie Yung, Co-Chair, Chief Design Officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo
Her expertise lies in establishing brand visions for the future and translating how a brand looks, feels, and behaves across experiences, products, and services. Her work has been recognized at every major award show including The One Show, D&AD, Cannes Lions, ADC, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design.
Laura Stein, Co-Chair, Partner, Chief Creative Officer at Bruce Mau Design
She has extensive experience in branding and leading global rebrands of organizations. Her work has been featured in books such as Designing Brand Identity and Dynamic Identities as well as publications like Fast Company, Communication Arts, Print and Creative Review and has been recognized by Cannes Lions and D&AD among others.
To see the Design training deck simply click on the image below, or use the Download button located immediately below the image to save a copy.
DESIGN TRAINING RECORDING
GLOBAL MASTERCLASS SESSION
The Global Young Lions Masterclass recording be found on the Cannes Lions website here: https://www.canneslions.com/learning/competitions/young-lions-competitions-live-masterclass
In the recording:
- Talk Summaries: Concise summaries of each speaker’s presentation, highlighting the key points and actionable insights.
- Speaker Biographies: Learn more about the industry experts who shared their knowledge and experience.
If you would like to know more about the Cannes Lions Festival, please visit their homepage here and sign up for Cannes Lions news.
Competition weekend begins Saturday, March 1st at 9:00 am. Good luck to everyone!
Keep in touch:
LI/IG: globemediagroup
X: CannesLionsCAN
globemediagroup.ca/canneslions
globeandmailyounglions.ca
#YoungLions2025
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