Rising stars: Unpacking the winning strategies of the 2023 Young Lions competition

The coveted Young Lions Competition has yet again raised the bar for young talent in the advertising industry. StopPress caught up with this year’s winners whose ingenuity on paper and media creativity impressed the judges.

From March 9 to 12 this year, young creatives were put to the test in a competition that centered around UnLtd’s charity, Springboard.

The charity, which offers wrap-around services for at-risk youth in Auckland’s Rodney District, is an essential part of its community.

Print participants were tasked with creating an A3 DPS to attract 1,000 donors willing to invest $ 10 per month, while media participants were challenged to devise an innovative approach to encourage visits to Sheepworld, a Springboard-owned enterprise that supports at-risk youth.

Entrants had just 72 hours to respond to the brief, and shortlisted media teams were required to deliver a 10-minute presentation and answer questions from the panel of judges. 

The media category was won by MBM’s Loren Smith and Amber Garrett, who proposed a unique approach to drive massive awareness at launch through media partnerships.

Their response included using a kids’ version of Allbirds sneakers as a media channel to connect with parents, school leaders, and PTA’s for both Springboard and Sheepworld. The innovative strategy was projected to reach 500K parents in New Zealand, generate ongoing sales and revenue for Springboard and Sheepworld, and drive over 500 Sheepworld visits during the July school holidays.

Smith says the idea grew organically when they found through research that Sheepworld were stocking UGG boots.

“This begged us to ask the question, why not the iconic Kiwi brand Allbirds, whose shoes are also made from wool?”

The strong link between the parents, kids and the work done through Springboard in the communities is what led to the project’s success, Garrett says.

“With the shoes made of wool, this gives a clear connection to Sheepworld; being a school shoe this also has the connection to youth, supporting all kids in Aotearoa at school and in the Springboard programme. The parents then have an awesome place to take their kids in the holidays, whilst being able to support a great cause at the same time.”

They say the process of creating this project pushed their boundaries on what media means and what can count as a channel to reach an audience.

“We learnt to not just think outside the box, but to in fact reinvent the box – in this case the ‘shoebox’,” says Smith.

Winning the print category were Lauren Brokenshire and Matthew Aitken from FCB Aotearoa with their ground-breaking proposal to turn one automatic subscription payment into a donation for Kiwi kids’ future.

The pair employed witty and creative copywriting in their idea, which involved the use of spoilers for movies, series, or documentaries, urging the reader to cancel their subscription and opt for joining Springboard by contributing to the 1000@10 club. This approach aimed to drive significant public engagement and encourage more people to support the cause.

 The idea for this came about after a conversation about the money that automatically goes out from their accounts for various subscriptions and how they don’t notice it.

“We thought why not make one of them redundant by spoiling your Netflix subscription?” they say.

Through this project the pair learnt that charity could have humour in it despite all their immediate thoughts about pulling at heart strings.

“Once we interrogated the brief more we found a little diamond.”

This was Brokenshire’s third time entering the competition and Aitken’s first and the pair say they enjoyed the experience.

“We felt like we were back at ad school a little bit, we had full control over the final output and got to make all the decisions around it. Doing print was a whole new experience too as Lauren had only ever worked in the film category.”

Their advice to the next group of Young Lions is: “Don’t complicate it. Keep pushing for the idea, you’ll know it when you’ve got it.”

The winning teams will represent Aotearoa at the Young Lions Global Competition in Cannes this June, where they will compete against their international counterparts for the global crown. 

To learn more about the Young Lions competition visit the Comms Council website here.

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