The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) has, for the third year in a row, announced its support for the Young Lions PR competition at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2016.The Young Lions PR competition seeks to discover the leading young creative PR team globally, and will see teams of two competing for the coveted prize. All teams competing in Cannes will have been through a pre-selection process in their own country set up the by their local Cannes Lions representatives.The PRCA is handling the UK competition to find a team to represent the UK in Cannes.

The UK competition will see teams respond to a brief created by a PRCA Charity in-house member over the course of 24 hours. The submitted presentations and written submissions will then be judged by a UK jury and a shortlist of eight campaigns will be invited to London to deliver a five minute presentation to the jury, explaining the PR campaign and the written submission. Last year, the UK Young PR Lions contest saw 30 national teams competing for the title of best young creative talent in the world.

For the first time, UK consultancies will be able to enter more than one team for the competition.

PRCA consultancy members can now enter the competition here: http://prca.org.uk/UKYoungLions. Competitors must now be aged 30 and under and born after 25th June 1985 to be eligible to register – previously the competition was open to those aged 28 and under.

Once in Cannes, the competing national teams will be set a brief by a charity or non-profit organisation that will act as the ‘client’. The aim of the 24-hour competition is to show how PR is effectively used to engage audiences with an organisation or a specific topic that the ‘client’ is dealing with. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be presented to the winners, with the Gold winners being honoured during the PR Awards on Tuesday 21st June 2016.

Francis Ingham MPRCA, ICCO Chief Executive and PRCA Director General, said: “We are incredibly proud to once again be launching this search for the most talented young PR professionals in the world. Cannes Lions, ICCO and the PRCA have a shared goal to recognise and reward the creative leaders of tomorrow and this competition continues to demonstrate the rude health of our industry.”

KEY DATES:

10th February: Registration Opens
1st March: Registration Closes 5pm
2nd March: PRCA Charity member revealed
3rd March: Creative Brief Issued 10am
4th March: Entries Due by 10am
17th March: Shortlist Announced
22nd March: Finalists pitch to UK Jury in London
23rd March: UK winners announced
18th-22nd June: UK winners travel to Cannes Festival of Creativity for the Young Lions PR Competition

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will take place 18-17 June 2016, in Cannes, France. A comprehensive learning programme designed to accelerate essential training across all career levels and disciplines is available during the event as well as Young Lions Competitions for Print, Media, Cyber, Film, Design and Marketers. For further information or to register to attend, please visit www.canneslions.com

The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 32 countries across the globe in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. Collectively, these associations represent over 2,500 PR firms.
www.iccopr.com