Today, nearly 200 young professionals from agency and brand side convened for the 2025 Irish Young Lions briefing session, hosted by IAPI at the Concert Hall, East Quad, TU Dublin Grangegorman. These aspiring Young Lions will compete this weekend to represent Ireland across the 7 categories including Print, Media, Public Relations, Film, Digital, Design, and Young Marketers in the Global Young Lions competition this June in Cannes, France.
The Institute of Advertising Practitioners Ireland (IAPI) are honoured to partner with our chosen charities ADHD Ireland and Spinal Injuries Ireland for the 2025 Irish Young Lions Competition.
The chosen charity for Design, Film and Media is ADHD Ireland, a charity dedicated to providing up-to-date information, resources and community building opportunities to individuals with ADHD, as well as parents of children with ADHD and the professionals who serve the ADHD community. They also work with partners (universities and third level colleges, government agencies and other organisations) to engage the wider community in reducing stigma, improving acceptance, advocating for those with the condition, and contributing to research.
Ken Kilbride, CEO, ADHD Ireland said: “ADHD Ireland are honoured to have been selected to submit a brief for this year’s Young Lions competition. We have long seen the need to reframe ADHD for Irish society, and we are genuinely excited to see the creative response from the teams to our brief!”.
The chosen charity for Digital, PR, Print and Young Marketers is Spinal Injuries Ireland. Spinal Injuries Ireland is the only support and service agency in Ireland for people who have sustained a spinal cord injury. SII’s mission is to engage people with a spinal cord injury, along with their family members, and together address barriers to full participation in society and empower their service users to work towards achieving personal, social and vocational goals.
Fiona Bolger, CEO, Spinal Injuries Ireland said: “We were delighted to have been chosen by IAPI for the Cannes Young Lions. It is such a special and unique opportunity to get some of the brightest minds in advertising working with us and thinking about inclusion for people with spinal cord injuries. We are looking forward to seeing the responses to the brief and the ideas they will have around helping us empower people with spinal cord injuries and the wider disability community.
Similar to previous years, the participants will have the opportunity to collaborate with these charities to develop innovative campaigns that raise awareness and support their key initiatives. Working under a tight deadline, they have until midnight on Sunday 23rd February to submit their work.
The competition winners will be provided with an all-expenses paid trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, 16th – 20th June, to represent Ireland. Shortlisted teams will be revealed in March.
Katherine Ryan, Communications and Programme Director, IAPI said “This is a golden opportunity for young professionals to showcase their talent and creativity on a global stage. Wherever you’re at in your creative career, coming to Cannes Lions will leave you with unmatched learnings, experiences and connections. The winners of the Irish competition will proceed to Cannes to learn from the biggest ideas, meet like-minded people and get inspired by the best.
IAPI expresses gratitude to our sponsors and partners Bauer Media Group; Bodacious ; Business Post ; Droga5 Dublin ; Sky Media Ireland and Smurfit Westrock for their support in making this event possible, plus a special thanks to TU Dublin Grangegorman for hosting the charity briefing event.
IAPI look forward to showcasing the exceptional work of our participants and the impactful campaigns they develop in collaboration with ADHD Ireland and Spinal Injuries Ireland.
For more information on Cannes Young Lions including the categories and key dates, click here>>
For more information please contact: Sophie Carey, Communications & Project Manager, IAPI at sophie@iapi.com
