Two Murray Group consultants have scooped silver in the international Cannes Young Lions Awards for their response to a brief on the climate crisis.
The global awards are held in the south of France each year, but in 2021 they were held digitally for the first time, making the task even tougher for competitors. However, PR Consultants Orna Clarke and Lughán Deane rose to the challenge and over the course of 24 hours, developed and executed a successful PR campaign for One Young World - based around getting the public to engage with climate change issues - which truly impressed the judges.
The duo won the Irish heat of the competition last year and were up against stiff competition from across the world including China and the US. The UK won gold and Brazil took bronze. This is just the fourth time that Ireland have entered the PR category.
The Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) is the official Cannes Festival representative in Ireland and organised the local heats. CEO, Charley Stoney commented on the PR team's success: “Lughán and Orna were a stellar team from the outset and their silver is so well deserved, as they put a huge amount of time and effort into preparing for the competition. IAPI are thrilled for their success. I would also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the other Cannes Young Lions competitors that made up Team Ireland 2020/2021 as they were all exceptional and made us so proud.”
The Irish PR team are sponsored by the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) and the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA). PRII Chief Executive Martina Byrne said the win was evidence that Ireland could hold its own in terms of creative responses to international briefs: “They didn’t just win silver”, she said, “they won silver in the toughest year for competitors, working alone and online rather than in person in Cannes”.
The Cannes Creativity Festival 2020 was postponed due to the pandemic so the Irish teams, representing Film, Print, PR, Digital, Media, Design and Marketing had to wait until this summer to compete and, for first time, compete online.
The Cannes Young Lions Live Award gives young creative professionals under 30 the opportunity to put their minds to work solving big challenges. In categories including digital, film, media, print and PR, participants receive a creative brief from a non-profit client and are asked to develop ideas that have the potential to break through the noise and truly raise the client’s profile.
Murray Group Managing Director Pat Walsh said he was incredibly proud of Orna and Lughán, in performing so well under pressure on an international stage: “It’s really incredible that these two young talented consultants can win gold nationally, and silver globally. Murray are privileged to have received such global recognition ,and all their colleagues here at the company are incredibly proud.”
