Cannes Lions partners Youtube for global 48 hour ad contest

YouTube is partnering with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to reward two young creatives who will have the chance to win a trip to this year's festival in the south of France.

In May, YouTube will be running a 48-hour viral film contest  to create an ad for a well known, international charity whose identity will be kept under wraps until the launch of the contest on 15th of May.

On May 17, the competition will close and contestants will have two weeks to generate as many views possible. Two winners will be selected by a panel of experts who will judge the ad based on creativity, the number of views and video ratings.

The winners will unite and receive an all expenses paid trip to Cannes to attend the festival, besides a chance to compete as the 38th team in the prestigious Young Lions Film competition.

This is how the process will unravel. At midnight on May 15 (GMT) YouTube will release a brief for up to a 60 second viral ad aimed at raising awareness for the charity, on www.youtube.com/canneslions. Creatives aged 28 years and under have until midnight of 17 May (GMT) to submit their ad to this channel. Following this, there will be a two-week period between 17th May and 1st of June for entrants to create a viral buzz around their video to drive as many public views and votes as possible by whatever means. Following this, after the 1st of June, a panel of advertising experts will judge the shortlisted entries and select two winners based on overall creative execution of the brief and the videos' views, ratings, comments, votes and overall online footprint. The results will be announced on 5th June.

Lorraine Twohill, VP of global marketing, Google/YouTube, said: "We are delighted to team up with Cannes Lions, creative agencies and the wider creative community around the world to create a new "YouTube team" entry for the Young Lions film competition. This is a great way to encourage young creatives in traditional media to grasp new media tools and develop an innovative viral campaign for a leading charity."

The Young Lions Film Competition, launched in 2006,  is a part of the week-long festival which sees teams of two from 37 countries aged 28 or under, who have just 48 hours to shoot and edit a one minute commercial on behalf of the client - a charity or not-for-profit organisation.

The judges for the YouTube contest include Rory Sutherland, vice chairman, Ogilvy One (UK); Alexandre Gama – CCO and founder, NeoGama BBH (Brazil); Stéphane Xiberras - president and ECD, BETC Euro RSCG (France); Nick Law - executive VP and CCO, North America, R/GA (USA); Yuya Furukawa – ECD, Dentsu (Japan); Ariel Abramovici - copywriter, BBDO Argentina; Bruno Acanfora - art director, BBDO Argentina. 
 

Watch the video here: