99 winners were announced at this year's event
Singapore: In association with UNICEF, the Young Lions Health Award is conducted every year aiming to discover the next generation of young talent in creative communications and solve healthcare challenges across the globe by preventing diseases and strengthening health systems. The two day event this year was held on 18-19 June in Cannes, France, attended by close to 1,000 that mainly included experts from the healthcare communications industry. The event celebrates the life-changing innovations, trends, and game-changing technology transforming the current healthcare industry.
As part of its commitment to Sustainable Living, Unilever is partnering on this initiative with UNICEF and Lions Health. UNICEF works in more than 190 countries worldwide and aims to ensure that every last child is fed, vaccinated, educated and has a chance to grow up free from violence.
The event is held as a competition focused on helping UNICEF raise awareness about the importance of children's first years of life for their social, emotional and cognitive development. The event aims at generating awareness about global healthcare issues and help nations build robust systems that can reach every child everywhere with basic, lifesaving health services.
The competition called upon communication and marketing professionals under the age of 30 to submit integrated marketing toolkits that aim to raise awareness among caregivers about the importance of play in fostering children's cognitive, social, health and emotional development in the critical early years of life. The ideas will be used as part of UNICEF's overall communication outreach on Early Childhood Development.
The competition drew 112 entries which were judged by a team of industry experts and special guests, including UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Ms Shakira; Ms Alexandra von Plato, Group President, Publics Healthcare Communications Group; and Mr Josh Prince, President, The CDM Group.
Mr Louise Benson, Festival Director, Lions Health, said, "We were thrilled to receive such an exciting range of entries and it was a tough decision for our panel to pick just one winner. This award not only supports young industry talent, but also raises crucial awareness to help improve the wellbeing of young children across the world."
This year, Asia had locked in nearly 26 entries on the shortlist stage for the Cannes Pharma Lions with India and Hong Kong leading the pack with nine each. All of India's nine shortlists are for Medulla Communications for the Indian Association of Pallative Care for "End of Life care", while six of Hong Kong's shortlists come from McCann Health for Pfizer's "Xalatan". Japan had four shortlists; South Korea two; and Thailand and The Philippines had one shortlist each.
A total of 99 winners were announced at the 2016 Cannes Lions Health. From 582 entries submitted in the Pharma section, 52 Lions were awarded, with Ogilvy & Mather London's "Breathless Choir" for Philips claimed the Grand Prix.
Jury President, Ms Alexandra von Plato, Group President of Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, described the campaign as one that challenges the traditional 'product as hero' approach to focus on 'patient as hero'. "It's a stunning example of cinematic storytelling in the medical devices industry and clearly breaks the mould," she said.
Under the category, Health & Wellness Lions 47 Lions were awarded, from a total of 2023 entries and the Grand Prix went to London agency FCB Inferno's "Project Literacy" for Pearson. Commenting on the winner, Jury President, Joshua Prince, Chief Marketing Officer of Omnicom Health Group, said, "The campaign is devastatingly good at showing the real costs of illiteracy and shows that before we even get to health, we have to start with people's fundamental ability to understand."
The winner of the Young Lions Health Award was bagged by Eleanor Howe and Lina Benmansour of DigitasLBi, France's "UNICEF Brain Food". Their idea was innovative and used everyday objects to stimulate play, and providing creative ways for caregivers to interact with children and will be used as part of UNICEF's overall communication outreach on Early Childhood Development.
And finally, Special Awards were also announced, including the Grand Prix for Good - open to Gold Lion winning entries ineligible for a Grand Prix in their section and judged by members of the Pharma and Health & Wellness Juries - which went to "Manboobs" by Argentinian agency DAVID Buenos Aires for MACMA, focussed on breast cancer awareness.
Headquartered in Mumbai, India's Medulla Communications bagged the Healthcare Agency of the Year award, second to Langland, Windsor and third to McCann Health, Hong Kong. And Healthcare Network of the Year went to McCann Health, while Publicis Healthcare Communications Group and Ogilvy Commonhealth Worldwide bagged the second and third award respectively.
Commenting on the results, Lions Health Festival Director, Louise Benson, said, "We're delighted to reward and celebrate the ground-breaking work providing a benchmark of excellence in the healthcare communications industry. Now in its third year, Lions Health is an arena to recognise achievements and we would like to thank the jury for collectively selecting our 2016 winners."
