YouTube and Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival have today announced that Andrew Dobbie (25) who works at JWT Manchester, United Kingdom, and Rachel Wolak (28) who works at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Colorado, USA, have won the viral ad competition to promote WaterAid and will become ‘Team YouTube’, the 40th team to compete in this year’s Young Lions Film Competition in Cannes.
WaterAid, which works to bring safe water and sanitation to some of the world’s poorest communities, was revealed as the 2010 competition’s charity partner and unveiled a brief on 15 May for young creatives across the world to create a short ad of up to one minute and upload it onto YouTube to promote their ‘Don’t Let it Drop’ campaign. The ads aimed to get viewers to sign WaterAid’s petition demanding that world leaders do not let water and sanitation drop from the international agenda when they meet to review the progress of the Millennium Development Goals in September.
Creatives were given 48 hours to submit their ad and then had a further two weeks to make their YouTube ad go viral by any means necessary and obtain as many votes as possible.
The competition received 530 entries and over 75,600 votes in two weeks. A panel of worldwide creative leaders assessed the quality of the ads over the last week and selected Andrew Dobbie and Rachel Wolak as the winners based on the overall creative execution of the brief and the videos’ public votes. They will now unite as ‘Team YouTube’ and will receive an all expenses paid trip to Cannes to attend the International Advertising Festival and join 39 other teams from around the world to compete in the prestigious Young Lions Film competition which offers a fantastic exposure for young creatives looking to carve a role in the advertising or film industry.
Anna Bateson, Director of YouTube marketing EMEA, said, “We are delighted that this competition has drawn a healthy level of interest for the second year running and look forward to seeing ‘Team YouTube’ compete with the best young talent at Cannes.”
Chris Baylis, Executive Creative Director of TribalDDB Amsterdam and one of the contest judges, said, “It’s inspiring and exciting to see how, in just 48 hours, well executed creative ideas can be concepted and produced. Congratulations to the two winners whose ads had a unique approach that not only tackled the brief but were interesting enough to share and talk about.”
Joe Downie, Website Manager of WaterAid commented, “We’ve been really impressed with the amazing concepts people came up with. Together, the hundreds of films have created a real awareness-raising buzz for WaterAid and our ‘Don’t Let it Drop’ campaign. Thanks to all those who took part and congratulations to the two winners.”
Andrew Dobbie’s winning entry:
Rachel Wolak’s winning entry:
