New Cannes Chimera Competition Launches Today

Cannes Lions Calls on Global Creative Community to Help Recruit Millions of ‘Global Citizens Through Creative Brand Activations’

29 April 2015 – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has today launched the fifth Cannes Chimera Competition, an initiative to engage the global creative industry in building public awareness and support for solutions to critical global development problems.

This year, the brief for the Cannes Chimera Competition calls for the development of a one-time brand activation that will attract massive public attention to the growing Global Citizen platform, and result in a surge of sign ups to the campaign, through email capture and Facebook.

Global Citizen, which recently launched its “Unlock your power” campaign to expand its global community, will create the largest, most effective platform in the world for people to share, communicate and take action on issues affecting the world’s poorest. Supported by major NGOs in the development space and a diverse group of corporate partners, it provides new ways for people to understand and follow issues they care about—from gender equality or health to water and sanitation. Through content, campaigns, and events such as concerts and rallies, Global Citizen gives people a simple and easy way to use their voice to support global change. It builds on people’s desire for connection and their passion to do good, and shows them how their actions make a difference for people around the world.

“Being able to engage the global communications industry to lend their creativity to a campaign as worthwhile as Global Citizen is very special for us. It’s an innovative and large-scale project with an incredible ambition: to turn millions of us into global citizens that are willing to take action to help people living in the world’s poorest countries build a better life for themselves,” comments Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals.

“We know there are millions of people out there who are willing to support global development issues, but they don’t know how to, or where to start,” said Hugh Evans, CEO of The Global Poverty Project. “Global Citizen provides a forum where people can unlock their social power to take action on these critical issues, but we need creative ways to build awareness of the platform. We’re thrilled by the opportunity to partner with the Cannes Lions community to share this opportunity with the world.”

The competition is free to enter and consists of filling out a one-page submission form. Open from today, it closes on 27 May. A maximum of three winners will be chosen from the pool of entries, each receiving a contract for a maximum of $150,000 to make their winning activation a reality. All activations must then be executed between July and September 2015. The full brief and competition rules are available at www.canneschimera.com/challenges/2015/brief

About the Cannes Chimera Initiative
This partnership, co-created by Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, inspires and activates the creative community to help solve the world’s most urgent global health and development problems. Each competition challenges the world’s creative talent to develop ground-breaking communications approaches that motivate global audiences to support change and take actions that address a unique development issue, through a competitive creative brief. To learn more about the Cannes Chimera, please visit http://www.canneschimera.com

About Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
The International Festival of Creativity, also known as Cannes Lions, is the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications. Founded in 1954, the Festival takes place every June in Cannes, France.

As the most prestigious international annual advertising and communications awards, more than 37,000 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy honouring the most creative film, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion & activation, film craft and integrated, branded content & entertainment advertising, as well as the best media, direct marketing, PR, health communications and innovation ideas. The Festival is also the only truly global meeting place for advertisers, advertising and communication professionals. Close to 12,000 delegates from 95 countries attend seven days of exhibitions, screenings, as well as high-profile seminars, workshops, forums and master classes presented by renowned worldwide industry leaders. As the networking and learning opportunity of the year, Cannes Lions is the must-attend event for anyone involved in brand communication. www.canneslions.com

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