2018 U.S. Cannes Young Lions Winners Announced

National CineMedia (NCM), America's Movie Network and the U.S. representative to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, is proud to present the winning teams of this year's U.S. Young Lions competitions. Over 350 entries were submitted this year from teams of young professionals working for Advertising, Digital, Media, Creative, and PR companies or agencies as well as in-house marketing teams.

2018 U.S. Cannes Young Lions Winning Teams:

• Digital: Andrew Green and Blas Madera, R/GA – View Entry
• Film: Emanuel Vinkler and Jay Zschunke, 360i – View Entry
• Media: Rachel Hoffman and Max Slonim, Initiative – View Entry
• PR: Kelly Kenny and Gabrielle Low, Ketchum NY – View Entry
• Print: Marcos Botelho and Juarez Rodriguez, RPA – View Entry

2018 U.S. Cannes Young Lions 2^nd & 3^rd Place Teams:

• Digital:
  • Cat Samarista, POSSIBLE and Claire Zimmerman, SapientRazorfish (2^nd Place)
  • Lauren Meredith and Luna Zhang, VML (3^rd Place)
• Film:
  • Kate Dickerson and Deniz Kayiket, FCBHealthcare (2^nd Place)
  • Lauriann LeMoreaux and Sara Mason, FCBWest (3^rd Place)
• Media:
  • Anthony Rocer and Janine Serio, Mediacom (2^nd Place)
  • Mackenzie Beer and Catherine Kim, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, (3^rd Place)
• PR:
  • Sarah Connolly and Paula Verkuylen, FleishmanHillard (Runners-Up)
• Print:
  • Daniel Jaramillo and Amanda Keffer, Leo Burnett (2^nd Place)
  • Aaron Fisher and Robyn Tenenbaum, CP+B (3^rd Place)

Each of the winning teams will be sent, all expenses paid, to Cannes, France to compete as Team USA in the global Young Lions competition at the 65^th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world's leading celebration of creativity in communications, taking place from June 18 - 22, 2018.

In their respective categories, each team was challenged to develop a creative and innovative campaign that would increase name and brand recognition as well as drive new donations for The Jack & Jill Foundation Late Stage Cancer Foundation (JAJF).

JAJF is a national 501(c)(3) developed 12 years ago to treat the families (not the cancer) who are facing the loss of a young parent through late stage cancer. It is the only organization of its kind with a mission to help these children who are losing their mom or dad to cancer at a very vulnerable time. It is a small, very personal organization that treats 100-120 families a year, one family at a time.

Jon Albert, Founder and Executive Director, explained the impact this 2018 Young Lions initiative will have on his organization, saying, "The creativity, compassion, insight, enthusiasm and forward thinking demonstrated be these impressive Young Lions was admirable, and I am thankful for the judges as well. JAJF will no doubt benefit from the collective and specific plans proposed by these teams. This was a tangible initiative that JAJF strives to take full advantage of by implementing and executing on some of these relevant, important ideas. This was a WOW! and the timing could not be any better for JAJF. We can't be more grateful and excited. This was important."

Cliff Marks, President of National CineMedia (NCM), shared his enthusiasm for this year's competition, saying, "The work and the compassion exhibited by the Young Lions participants was extraordinary and will benefit the Jack and Jill Foundation for year to come. NCM is thrilled to be able to bring so much brilliant thought and executable ideas to a charity who helps so many young families during such a critical time of need."

The 2018 U.S. Young Lions sponsors who provided continuous involvement and generous support of this year's competitions are: DigitasLBi for Digital, Pereira & O'Dell for Film, UM for Media and The PR Council for PR. NCM is the sponsor of the Print competition.

NCM would also like to thank the judges who scored this year's submissions:

Digital: Jennifer Awasano, Digitas; Chris Barnes, NCM; Sue DeSilva, Digitas; Craig Elimeliah, VML; Jess Greenwood, R/GA; AJ Hassan, R/GA; Piper Hickman, 360i; Jeffrey Hinz, Mediacom; Troy Lumpkin, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Beth Mach, Initiative; Gavin McLeod, AKQA; Elicia Zank, Audi

Film: Jason Apaliski, Pereira & O'Dell; Christoph Becker, gyro; Marianne Besch, McGarry Bowen SF; Paul Caiozzo, Office of Baby; Cameron Farrelly, Vice Media; Marla Kaplowitz, 4 A's; Robert Lambrechts, Pereira & O'Dell; Leeann Leahy, The Via Agency; Matt Reinhard, O'Keefe, Reinhard & Paul; Garrick Schmitt, Essence Global

Media: Amy Armstrong, Initiative; Dave Bolger, Trilia Media; Christine Bradt, MullenLowe Media Hub; Rachel Brook, Mediacom; Christine Chen, Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Pele Cortizo-Burgess, Initiative; Mark Egan, Mediacom; Kristin Jones, UM; Hallie Johnston, Initiative; Tara Levine, Hearts & Science; Lynn Lewis-Pinkus, UM; Jason Lim, Mediacom; Jason Maggs, Initiative; Leah Meranus, Initiative; Sean O'Sullivan, Carat; Haley Paas, Carat; Anush Prabhu, Mediacom; Jasmine Presson, Mediacom; Lisa Purpura, VML; David Stopforth, Initiative; Sarah Stringer, Carat; Robert Swartz, Mediacom; Ben Winkler, OMD; Jeff Zanella, Trilia Media

PR: Gail Heimann, Weber Shandwick (Jury Chair); Natalie Best, French West Vaughn; Ted Fragulis, Catalyst; Jeff Olson, Olson Engage; Jaclyn Ruelle, MullenLowe; Bret Werner, MWW

Print: Will Bright, O'Keefe, Reinhard & Paul; Luciana Cardoso, FCB NY; Angie Elko, Goodby Silverstein & Partners; Jordan Edwards, NCM; Marques Gartrell, Deutsch NY; John Godsey, VML; Jeff Goeke, NCM; Joel Kaplan, MUH-TAY-ZIK; Menno Kluin, 360i; Tara Lawall, 72andSunny; Mike Lear, EP+CO; Bernardo Romero, Area23 FCB Healthcare; Crystal Yu, AKQA SF

About National CineMedia (NCM)

National CineMedia (NCM) is America's Movie Network. As the #1 Millennial weekend network in the U.S., NCM is the connector between brands and movie audiences. According to Nielsen, more than 700 million moviegoers annually attend theaters that are currently under contract to present NCM's Noovie pre-show in 50 leading national and regional theater circuits including AMC Entertainment Inc. AMC, Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CNK and Regal Entertainment Group. NCM's cinema advertising network offers broad reach and unparalleled audience engagement with over 20,800 screens in over 1,650 theaters in 187 Designated Market Areas® (all of the top 50). NCM Digital goes beyond the big screen, extending in-theater campaigns into online and mobile marketing programs to reach entertainment audiences. National CineMedia, Inc. NCMI owns a 48.6% interest in, and is the managing member of, National CineMedia, LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com.

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