These communications industry’s rising stars have won the jury over with their project titled Can winter be in the red, which made them the winners of Young Lions Croatia powered by Elan. This year, the competition has once again placed young Croatian talents in the spotlight, while also shedding light on the importance of protecting our planet.
Young Lions is a competition where the national communications industry’s new generation battles for the title of the best young creatives. By winning the prestigious Grand Prix, young lions are awarded an extraordinary opportunity to represent Croatia at the global Cannes Young Lions competition and feel the vibe of the world’s biggest festival of creativity – and the winners of this year’s 24-hour competitive challenge are young lionesses Jelena Ceković and Lara Burazin (404 agency) with their Can winter be in the red project!
At the Zagreb Innovation Centre (ZICER), 100 young lions worked on their creative solutions in six competitive categories: Design, Digital, PR, Marketers, Media, and Print. The winners in the PR category, as well as the holders of the Grand Prix award, are Jelena Ceković and Lara Burazin (404 agency), followed by runners-up Mate Šola and Ela Ban (McCann Zagreb), and the third place went to Valentina Mezdić and Lara Paša (CTA komunikacije). The winners in the Design category are Leopoldina Jovanovski and Toni Buršić (Bruketa&Žinić&Grey), while the second place was taken by Petra Kardaš and Elma Mešić (ForgeBIT).
The finalists of this year’s competition in the Design category are Vito Vidović and Petar Matić (404 agency). The finalist title in the Digital category went to three teams: Rafaella Carmen Tanač and Ivan Jamić (BBDO Zagreb), Lucia Buljat and Renata Blek (404 agency) and Nika Vojvodić and Tena Kuzmanović (Publicis), while the same accolade in the Marketers category was given to Jana Vrsalović and Paula Bošković (A1 Hrvatska). Finalists of the Media category are Marija Galijatović and Dora Solenički (Fakat), while there were no winners and finalists in the Print category.
The Young Lions Awards Show, where the winners will receive their well-deserved trophies, will take place in the Main Hall of DK2024 on 12 April at 9 PM. If you’re interested to hear what was going through young lions’ creative minds while creating their winning work, join them at Into the Lion’s Den: Presenting Young Lions Croatia 2024 powered by Elan Winners & Finalists.
The winners Jelena Ceković and Lara Burazin shared their excitement with us: We are delighted that the expert jury, that these top professionals, have recognized our work and our effort. We believe that the decision was not easy, which makes it even more valuable to us. The task was challenging, but the topic of environmental protection is very inspiring and pushed us in the right direction.
It is important to highlight the competition’s humanitarian nature – every year, the young lions are working on a brief provided by a non-profit charitable organisation or a civil society organisation. Once the competition has ended, the client gets to keep the creative solutions drafted by the competing teams. This year’s partner of the competition Elan and the organizer have tasked the contestants with drafting a solution for Protect Our Winters whose goal is to protect our winters and the planet from the global warming.
Jordan Wright, a representative from Protect Our Winters, said: The entire journey far exceeded our expectations, with each participant demonstrating a great understanding of our organisation and delivering solutions that resonated with our mission. The team curated an exceptional experience, and we are sincerely grateful for being a part of it. This collaboration with Young Lions not only showcased the participants’ high-level work but also opened doors to innovative solutions that will undoubtedly shape our future endeavors.
Besides the president of the jury Manuela Šola, the representative of Elan Eetu Tourunen and the representative of the client Jordan Wright, for the selection of the very best projects in this year’s competition the credit is also due to Stella Antunović (Val grupa), Dunja Delić (Konzum), Marko Đurković (EssenceMediacom), Nela Fegić Moguljak (Imago Ogilvy), Đuro Korać (Nivas), Monika Majstorović (A1 Hrvatska), Martina Pavić (BBDO Zagreb), Mihaela Pavlović (Futura DDB) and Vjeko Srednoselec (dentsu Croatia).
The competition was also supported by Shutterstock, which granted the competitors access to their imagebank. After the unforgettable experience of competing among the Croatian teams and the upcoming experience at the global Cannes Young Lions competition, our young lionesses will also get to travel to Cannes and attend the global festival of creativity!
You can find more information on the competition at https://danikomunikacija.com/awards/young-lions.