Belgium’s Dilan Sakar of PVH Benelux and Noëmie Haverhals of Avail NV won the Gold Lion in the 10th-annual Young Marketers Lions Competition at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for their campaign “#GiveHerACupOfLetters”. Sponsored by global communications consultancy Ketchum, this year’s competition challenged 26 teams of young, in-house marketers from around the world to develop a creative campaign for a product or service that would benefit Room to Read, a global nonprofit focused on ending child illiteracy.

The Silver Lion was awarded to Team Puerto Rico’s Bianca Martinez of Caribbean Restaurants and Maria Eugenia Ramirez of Puerto Rico Supplies Group for their campaign “Read this Whopper,” and the Bronze Lion went to South Korea’s Sol Yoon and Tae Jin Hwang of Kakao Corp. for their campaign “Have You Seen That?”

Participants were given 24 hours to produce a creative campaign before presenting their ideas in a 15-minute presentation to a panel of judges. This year’s jury is led by Hilary McKean, partner and president, marketing and complementary businesses, at Ketchum, and includes Rita Gorenberg, associate director of brand engagement at The Clorox Company, and Manuela Muñoz, corporate communications manager for Netflix in Latin America.

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Competitor countries included: Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Hungary, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

“It was such an incredible competition, filled with a diverse and creative group of concepts. I can’t believe what they were able to deliver in just 24 hours,” commented McKean. “We were looking for ideas that would surprise and delight that would pull through the societal issue of illiteracy, with a clear call to action to help raise awareness and funds for this often-overlooked issue. The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners all met these criteria and really delivered on the brief. But aside from the winning teams, there were so many creative campaigns presented that Room to Read now has enough creative programming to help them meet their goal of reaching 40 million children by 2024.”

This is the 10th year the Young Marketer Lions Competition has taken place at Cannes, and the ninth consecutive year Ketchum has been its sponsor. Ketchum also is a long-standing partner of this year’s nonprofit, Room to Read.

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Julie Sims, senior director of marketing and communications at Room to Read, said, “It has been a phenomenal experience, and we are coming away with so many ideas we can bring to life. It was so hard for the jury to make their deliberations, as the quality of the campaigns from all the teams was so high. We are so grateful for all of their hard work, energy and dedication they have thrown into the competition and to our brand, and we are so excited to bring them to life.”

Team Belgium will receive their trophies during the mainstage award ceremony on Thursday, June 20 in the Palais des Festivals.

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