The 2022 Young Lions Canadian Competition Announces Top 5 Marketers and Media Teams

Marketers Top 5 Teams pictured (top row, from left) Cristina Rizzardo, Jessica Kim, Kevin Park, Kush Gandhi, and Lily Shui; (second row, from left) Matt Bissonnette, Melisa Bayrav, Michelle Skea, Omar Elmezaini, and Yingqi Lily Li.

Media Top 5 Teams pictured (third row, from left) Aashish Kachru, Alexandra Cloutier, Anastasiya Matuk, André-Félix Barriault, and Ariuna Vanchikova; (bottom row, from left) Caitlin Murphy, Camilo Trujillo Sanchez, Eileen Bui, Katie Polan, and Tristan Bonnot-Parent.

The Globe and Mail, Official Festival Representative in Canada for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, is pleased to announce the Top 5 teams for the 2022 Canadian Young Lions Competition in the Marketers and Media categories. Modelled after the Cannes Global Young Lions Competition, Marketers and Media entrants received a brief and had to complete the challenge for their respective categories within a 24-hour period.

Each year the Competition jury chairs select a non-profit organization as the subject of the competition briefs. This year the charity selected was Youth Mental Health Canada (YMHC), a community-based, youth-led, non-profit based in Hamilton, Ontario. They support a proactive and hands-on approach to addressing the issues of mental health for Canadian youth. Their focus is on youth, family, and community engagement for mental health education, support, advocacy, and change.

Marketers were challenged to develop a big idea to create awareness of the issue of youth mental health and the solutions available through YMHC that also linked to their brand’s business objectives. For Media, competitors were tasked with developing a creative media strategy that would engage the target audience in ways that would make them pay attention and act and leverage the services offered by YMHC.

Marketers and Media competition submission entries were judged by an esteemed panel of industry leaders, led by returning jury chairs Susan Irving (Marketers) and Cathy Collier (Media).

The semi-finalists in the Marketers category are:

• McDonald’s Happier Meal
  • Matt Bissonnette, Marketing Analytics Manager, McDonald’s Canada
  • o Lily Shur, National Marketing Consultant, McDonald’s Canada
• Open One Up with Budweiser
  • Michelle Skea, Senior Brand Manager, Stella Artois, Labatt Breweries of Canada
  • Melisa Bayrav, Senior Brand Manager Corona & Modelo, Labatt/AB Inbev
• Gatorade Be Like
  • Omar Elmezaini, Marketing Manager – Mtn Dew & 7up, PepsiCo Canada
  • Kush Gandhi, Marketing Manager - Miss Vickie's, Smartfood & Sun Chips, PepsiCo Foods Canada
• YMHC x Rogers - Project Lighthouse
  • Kevin Park, Digital Marketing Lead, Canada, HP Inc.
  • Yingqui Lily Li, Senior Manager, Pricing and Business Economics, Rogers Communications Inc.
• The AllyBond
  • Cristina Rizzardo, Product Manager Manager, Scotiabank
  • Jessica Kim, Senior Marketing Manager, Scotiabank

The semi-finalists in the Media category are:

• Happy Meal, Happy Mind
  • Aashish Kachru, Search Supervisor, PHD Media
  • Ariuna Vanchikova, Associate Director, Strategy, Touche! Media
• Bridging the gap
  • Eileen Bui, Assistant Digital Strategist, OMD
  • Camila Trujillo Sanches, Digital Supervisor, OMD
• Mental Art
  • André-Félix Barriault, Digital Supervisor, Omnicom Media Group Montréal
  • Alexandra Cloutier, Associate Direction, Digital Activation, Omnicom Media Group Montréal
• Tell Your Story
  • Caitlin Murphy, Senior Strategist, OMD
  • Katie Polan, Senior Strategist, OMD
• Mental Engine Check
  • Tristan Bonno-Parent, Data Analyst Assistant, Cossette Media
  • Anastasiya Matuk, Media Design Assistant, Cossette Media

The Marketers and Media Top 5 teams will virtually participate in the live judging stage of the competition on Tuesday, April 6th and Wednesday, April 7th, 2022, where our esteemed panel of judges will determine the placing teams. The placing teams will be revealed on April 27th, during a live-virtual announcement.

In addition to being crowned as Canada’s best, Gold-winning teams also win a trip to Cannes, France, to attend the five-day International Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity from June 20 to 24, 2022, the largest gathering in the creative marketing community. Should travel restrictions still be in place Gold-winning teams can decide to take a cash prize of $5,000.00 per winning team instead of the trip to Cannes.

As the Competition Sponsor, The Globe and Mail awards a prize per Gold-winning team, which includes registration fees for the virtual Global Young Lions Competition, delegate passes to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, and the cost of flights and accommodation.

This year’s competition saw 448 people registered to compete across the five categories: Print, Digital, Film, Media and Marketers – with 50 people registered in the Marketers category and 180 in Media.

• To view the profiles of this year’s competition jurors please visit https://globeandmailyounglions.ca/jury/.
• For complete eligibility criteria and competition guidelines, refer to the Official Rules and Regulations
• For more information about The Globe and Mail’s Young Lions competition, visit globeandmailyounglions.ca.

About the Young Lions Competition: The Globe and Mail has been the official Canadian representative of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity since 2005, hosting the Canadian Young Lions competitions since 2007 and the Marketers competition since 2012.

Strategy Magazine, Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), and the Canadian Media Directors’ Council (CMDC) also support the competitions as partners of the Canadian Cannes Program.

About the 68th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, also known as Cannes Lions, is the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications and encompasses Lions Health, Lions Innovation and Lions Entertainment. Founded in 1954, the Festival takes place every June in Cannes, France. As the most prestigious international annual advertising and communications awards, entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival.

About The Globe and Mail: The Globe and Mail is Canada’s foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.5 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 1.8 million readers in print and digital every issue.