Cannes Lion Excites Nigerian Youngsters With Pre-Festival Events

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has launched its communications campaign for 2016, and it is titled “Thank You Creativity”. As a prelude to the event, Cannes Nigerian representative, Chini Productions has rolled out plans for pre-Cannes events in Nigeria.

Some of the activities that have been lined up by Chini Production are the Young Lions Competitions, the Miami Ad School Scholarship Competitions, Lions Edit and Lions Night & Awards. These activities are scheduled to take place from April 5 to April 9, 2016 and entries for Roger Hatchuel Academy, Young Lions Competition and Miami Ad School Scholarship competitions are already open at www.canneslions-ng.com.

The Roger Hatchuel Academy is the oldest academy in Cannes Lions and is named after the first Festival Chairman. It is a high profile intensive training for students in the university who intend to work in advertising on graduation. In Nigeria, Chini Productions is working with Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) to promote this programme.

The programme will provide a platform for talented students, gathered from campuses around Nigeria, to learn from leading lights in the advertising profession. And they will be afforded the chance to visit some notable ad agencies as part of their 3-day intensive residential programme. Noah’s Ark Communications and STB McCann have already agreed to host the students involved in the programme.

Meanwhile, this year’s Roger Hatchuel Academy Awards has been expanded to include new categories like Best Teacher and Best School awards. Also, the best academy student as usual will be sponsored to attend the international academy in Cannes and the first runner-up will be sponsored to attend a sister regional festival, the Dubai Lynx.

The Young Lions Competitions will hold in Film, Design, Print, Cyber and Media categories. These are competitions among young professionals of 30 years and below working in agencies in Nigeria. The winners from each category will represent Nigeria in their respective categories at the international competitions during the Cannes Lions Festival in June.

A new introduction to the local offering of the pre Cannes programmes is the Lions Edit. This is a platform offered to agencies, digital companies, production outfits and brands to connect their practice to the creativity essence of Cannes Lions to make top notch presentations that will educate, inspire, enrich and grow the industry.

Several companies have already indicated interest to be part of this. Special roles are expected to be played by communications experts in Health and Technology as well as Nollywood and Music in line with the new specialized festival extensions in Cannes – Lions Health, Lions Innovation and Lions Entertainment. The event is scheduled to begin at 9:00am on 9 April, 2016 at MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.