SMG is committed to nurturing up-and-coming talent and this year is sponsoring the Young Lions Storytelling Academy at Cannes. We’ll also have a number of rising stars on the ground, including Rhianwen Hart, SMG UK, a Young Media Lions Winner. Here’s her story.
1) Tell us more about your honor and how you were selected.
My teammate Hayati Alaluf and I won the UK Young Lions Media Competition and are now heading out to Cannes to compete against the winners from other global markets, and are trying to win the (hopefully Gold) Young Lion award! The original brief was for Barnardo’s, asking us to help the charity connect with local people and help them understand what Barnardo’s does for vulnerable children in their areas. We had 24 hours to respond to the brief with a 15-slide deck outlining our insights, strategy, media touch points and expected results. Once we got shortlisted (Top 6 out of 76 entrants, I think) this deck had to be reduced to 5 slides ready for a final presentation in front of a panel of judges at the Guardian offices. We had 5 minutes to present and then 5 minutes to answer questions. A couple of days later, we got an email saying we had won!
2) What is your role at SMG and how long have you been here?
I am currently a Senior Planning Exec working on the P&G account. I work across hair care, beauty and grooming, so my brands include Gillette Venus, Pantene, Aussie, Braun, etc. I have only been here for a year, coming on to the business after I graduated from the University of Kent, where I had been studying Social Policy and Politics.
3) What do you like most about your job and working in the media industry?
I love that no day is the same – there are always new challenges to be met, new questions to be answered and new formats to get our heads around! I work in a really collaborative team so I am lucky to be able to get a good understanding of things outside of my brands. We call ourselves P&G United and are truly that, the people I work with are a key reason why I love my job so much. I also find that media as an industry is incredibly broad, allowing for a lot of opportunity and movement, which is an exciting prospect for the future.
4) What will you be doing while in Cannes?
While in Cannes we will be competing against other YL winners from other markets in a format similar to the first round. We will receive a brief from a charity or non-profit organization, but that brand won’t be selected until early Sunday afternoon on 15th June. Each team will then be required to generate the necessary insight to develop an innovative media/contact strategy. We have to work a strategy into 5 slides and be ready to present on the morning of Tuesday 17th June. The winners will be announced and the Gold winners will receive their medals at the Creative Effectiveness, Media, Mobile & Outdoor Lions awards ceremony that evening.
5) What do you most hope to learn while in Cannes?
French, at least a little. But I also hope to learn about the media landscape in other markets, as my only experience of the industry is very UK-focused. It will be interesting to see how they approach the brief and the consequential differences in response. This also applies to the work that will be displayed throughout the festival, outside of the YL experience. This is the crème de la crème of the advertising world, so will be worth soaking it all in, and really see how new innovation and different strategic thinking, across all categories, can be applied to the work that my teams are doing back home.
6) How do you expect your experience in Cannes to help your work back home?
I think that being exposed to so much creative work will be inspiring. There are many countries that we assume are not as advanced as we are in terms of media ability, particularly in the digital space. However they are still producing award-winning work, and doing so in a way that is practically and emotionally relevant for their audiences while being highly beneficial to their clients. It is by thinking outside of the box and connecting these ideas to real-life, everyday issues and occurrences, that produce the best campaigns. I expect that this experience will allow me to see work and meet people who are doing this on a daily basis, and it is their insight and advice that will ultimately help me create the within my work when I come back home.
To read about other SMG rising stars headed to Cannes this year, click here.
