Best in 89 countries:
Cannes Lions recognises Georgia for domestic competition

Prestigious Cannes advertising festival praises Georgia for well-organised selective competition held in capital Tbilisi this spring which selected the local superstars to fight at Cannes Young Lions Competitions in France.

This week the 64th annual representatives meeting of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity recognised Georgia’s achievements in organising and hosting the domestic Young Lions competition as the best among the 89 countries in 2016.

The meeting took place in London, capital of the United Kingdom on October 17-18 which summarised the highlights of the year 2016 and designed the strategy for the next year.

Official representative of Cannes Lions to Georgia Ako Akhalaia told Agenda.ge that Georgia was selected as the Best Young Lions Representative 2016 because it met "number of criteria”.

First of all the domestic competition that was held in Tbilisi was very large scale event where hundreds of visitors, many advertising agencies and teams, industry players and invited jury members from 15 countries were involved,” said Akhalaia.

A video published on Youtube by Marketer shows Philip Thomas, the CEO of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity announces Georgia as the winner country. 

He added the format of the domestic competition was very similar to the international Festival of Creativity and this was appreciated by the officials from the Cannes Festival.

A special competition for the Cannes Young Lions Competitions, which is one of the most prestigious events in the communication and marketing industry, held in Tbilisi in April.

Dozens of aspiring Georgians took part in a series of local Cannes Young Lions Competitions, which selected eight "young lions” to represent Georgia at the international Cannes Lions festival in June and to compete alongside some of the world’s best young creative minds.

Georgia became part of Cannes Lions two years ago when a group of Georgian communication companies got the exclusive rights to organise and host the design section of the Cannes Young Lions Competitions.

This year Georgia became the best young lions representative country. Photo by Ako Akhalaia/Facebook. 

Since then Georgia has been hosting the local competition and winning the big in France as well. So far Georgia has two gold awards from the Cannes Young Lions Competition. Furthermore, the honourable jury of the international competition also includes Georgian member.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the largest gathering of international advertising professionals, designers, digital innovators and marketers. Every year in June around 11,000 registered delegates from 90 countries visit the Festival to celebrate the best of creativity in brand communication, discuss industry issues and network with one another.