Look ma! We won a bronze!

Back in March, my co-worker Valerie and I participated in Globe & Mail's Young Lions competition. The challenge was to create a media plan in 24 hours for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a charity that addresses the challenges of AIDS/HIV in Africa. The gold medalist of each category represents Canada at the Cannes Young Lions Competition at the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.


Challenging? Yes. I haven't been this challenged since my university days. It brought memories of sleepless fourth year marketing projects. We started our Saturday at 9 am and finished in the wee hours of the morning, 3 am to be exact. The key objective was to increase donations amongst women ages 25-45. It was very important to us to not deviate from our core idea, the vulnerability of women. After brainstorming a million ideas on scrap pieces of paper, and going back and forth with countless media executions, we tried the best we could given the circumstances, 24 hours to complete a media plan was brutal! At the time, I felt defeated, tired and dazed. Now looking back, it was a great experience and truly puts one's determination to the test.


We honestly didn't expect to place. The chances of us making the top 3 were slim for our first attempt. The funny story was Val and I didn't even bother checking the results after the CEO announced that no one from the company placed in the top 3. It wasn't until another co-worker let us know our names were listed on a website. I immediately flew to Val's desk and told her the "news". Our names were on the list alright, but the media plan linked wasn't ours!

After much investigation, it turns out the Globe & Mail screwed up and we did in fact win the bronze! *WOOT!* Val is a talented graphic artist who also really knows her media shizz. Her amazing graphic skills really brought the whole plan together nicely. It was a pleasure to work with her.

{ click to check out our media plan! }