The young stars of the communications industry won the judges over and earned the most prestigious Young Lions Croatia award with their Dobro i naopako project. The competition focused on showcasing young talented creatives and bringing attention to the importance of mental health together with Cedevita.
Young Lions Croatia is a competition for young professionals under 30 organised within DK festival. The competition prides itself on its humanitarian aspect so this year Cedevita, the partner of the competition, and the organizers decided that the creative assignment will be made for BoliMe, a civil society organisation that promotes mental health and also gets to keep the winning projects free of charge.
66 competitors created solutions in teams of two in five categories: Design, Digital, PR, Media and Print. Maria Šimurina and Luka Mavretić (Imago Ogilvy) won the PR category as well as the Grand Prix for the “Dobro i naopako” project, while Dunja Verbič and Rene Filipović (Convergent Media Group) took the win in the Digital category. According to the total jury score, these were the sole winners of Young Lions Croatia 2020.
The finalist of this year’s edition are as follows: Matej Vučković and Mia Matijević (Bruketa&Žinić&Grey) in the Print category, Antea Franjić and Lorena Hrvoj (Imago Ogilvy) in the PR category, Tin Huzek Kitan and Kristina Kozić (Real Grupa) as well as Sara Šalov and Ivan Grgić (BBDO Zagreb) in the Digital category and Martina Ukić and Simon Flegar (Studio Sonda) in the Design category.
The jury consisted of ten experts from various corners of the communications industry: Vanja Bertalan (Human), Marina Bolanča (Abeceda komunikacije), Nina Išek Međugorac (Media Val), Tonči Klarić (Spellcaster), Gjuro Korać (Nivas), Marijana Novak (Pro Media Group), Sean Poropat (Studio Sonda), Jelena Slade Šilović (Cedevita), Daša Vukobratović (OMG) and Judita Gamulin (BoliMe), the representative of the client.
The BoliMe association, to which the creative solutions were donated, has been advocating for greater mental health awareness since 2014 with various public campaigns, especially amongst the youth. Their hard work is always focused on emphasizing the fact that mental health is a prerequisite for personal and societal prosperity.
We cannot control earthquakes and viruses, but we can control the future of our society. This is why Cedevita, as one of the biggest regional brands which spreads positivity in the community, supports projects like these, especially in a year when the communications industry took an extremely hard hit. The topic we chose with the organizers – promoting mental health – is slowly becoming unavoidable and it is more important than ever so I am incredibly excited to see the winning project come to life, said Jelena Slade-Šilović, Strategy Lead SBU Beverages & Category Development Manager at Atlantic Grupa and a jury member of Young Lions Croatia. She added: These competitions are a great way to look into the future of the creative industry, recognise our strengths and weaknesses and spotlight young professionals that need our support.
This unprecedented year has shown us the importance of the communications industry, which is why the organizers thank each and every one of the 66 competitors, who joined forces and demonstrated that creativity can leave a lasting impact on society. The BoliMe association also thanks everyone who participated: We are truly grateful that HURA and Cedevita recognised our work and we want to thank all the competitors. The whole competition was a completely new experience for us, from writing briefs, communicating with the competitors to the jury process, so we are thankful for the amazing opportunity. We are aware that the work on fixing the mental health crisis is only beginning, but we support every individual, institution and organisation that sees this problem, acknowledges its importance and works to empower our communities.
In addition to Cedevita, the competition was also supported by Shutterstock, whose online base was used by the competitors. The winning team has also received a 45.000 HRK worth trip to Cannes Lions, the world’s biggest festival of creativity.
Featured photo: Jurica Galoić/PIXSELL