Georgia reveals “young lions” to fight at Cannes Young Lions Competitions

Georgia has revealed a team of two people who will represent the country at the next international Cannes Lions festival in June.

Dimitri Vachnadze and Zackharia Metreveli from Windfor’s will compete with the world’s other best "young lions” at the international competition.

The pair were revealed as the winners of Georgia’s first Young Lions Design Competition, which gives graphic and other specialist designers the space to showcase their talent and test their skills against others in the industry.

Georgia’s first Young Lions Design Competition took place on April 25-26 at Tbilisi’s Justice House Training Centre.

About 18 teams from 14 communication agencies applied to the competition.

The winners were revealed in gold, silver and bronze categories, in the following way:

• Gold – Windfor’s | Design: Zackharia Metreveli | Copywriter: Dimitri Vachnadze
• Silver – Branding.ge | Design: Anuka Kvezereli | Copywriter: Ani Chkoidze
• Bronze – Holmes & Watson | Design: Vano Saginashvili | Copywriter: Nikusha Antadze

The competition was judged by an honorable jury including head of Design at Google Patrick Collister and president at D&AD Laura Jordan Bambach.

The Cannes Young Lions Competitions were open to people working in the creative industries who were 28 or under (30 or under for the Marketers competition). But to compete at Cannes Lions, the best of the best had to be revealed in each participant country at first.

The Festival’s official network of representatives run local competitions to select teams in the run up to Cannes Lions, with the winners going on to compete at the international Festival in June. Festival categories are: print, media, cyber, film, marketers, design and PR.

A group of Georgian communication companies have been offered the exclusive rights to organise and host the design section of the Cannes Young Lions Competitions – an internationally recognised "Festival of Creativity” that is one of the most prestigious events in the communication and marketing industry.

An agreement was signed by Georgia and the Cannes Lions as a result of three months of intense negotiations, which gives Georgia’s Association of Communications Agencies the right to be an official representative of all events under the umbrella of Cannes Lions. These events are: Cannes Lions, Eurobest, Lions Health, Lions Innovation, Spikes Asia, Dubai Lynx and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness and Strategy Awards.

The Association includes 11 leading Georgian communication companies; Leavingstone, Live Branding, TMG Marketing, Windfor’s, Jwt Metro, Branding.ge, Betterfly, Abk, Saatchi and Saatchi, Holmes and Watson and GEPRA.

By signing the agreement, the Association must raise awareness and promote all Cannes Lions-related festivals in the country and encourage Georgian professionals to partake in Cannes Lions activities.