AKQA's Future Lions Come to the Fore

Wednesday afternoon (June 18) saw this year's Future Lions announced and rewarded for their selection of brilliantly creative ideas; ideas which, as the mandate of the Future Lions states, would not have been achievable five years ago.

The goal of the Future Lions, now in it's ninth year and which is an international competition open to advertising students, is to connect an audience to a product or service from a brand of the entrants' choosing using new ideas, and the five winning entries were revealed in the Debussy Theatre to a packed audience on Wednesday afternoon.

After an introduction from AKQA's New York-based CCO, Rei Inamoto, who described the event as "a global celebration of ideas generated by students", James Hilton, co-founder and CCO of AKQA, revealed the winners, which included among them a way of generating energy from foot-fall in football stadiums, a wearable tech t-shirt to measure the heart rate of children with heart conditions, and a way to donate to the (RED) charity without needing to buy a new piece of kit.

Apple + Product (RED) Donate By Update

Created by Bastian Lievers and Tim Blaney Davidson, from Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam 

Google Gesture

Created by August Östberg, David Svedenström and Ludwig Hallstensson, from Berghs School of Communication Stockholm

Ben & Jerry’s Do Zero For Climate Change

Created by Fabian Lakander, Pia Hansson Näslund, Afshin Piran, Sebastian Sandberg and Linda Kraft  from Berghs School of Communication Stockholm

Children’s Heart Foundation HEARt Me

Created by Anne Walde and Nicole Schurz from Miami Ad School of Europe

IBM Passion is Power

Created by Adam Radi and Mathias Trads from School of Communication Art 2.0 London

In addition to the above, Berghs School of Communication was crowned School of the Year, with the greatest number of shortlisted finalists of any school around the globe.  

The Future Lions attracted 1,760 entries from over 40 countries this year, and the competition continues to unearth some of the brightest creative minds in the industry. “This year’s Future Lions competition had the most forward-thinking and daring ideas to date,” said Inamoto. “We were blown away by the calibre of submissions and the winning teams rose to the challenge by providing concepts that not only inspire marketers, but help brands connect with their consumers in a way that has never beenseen before.”

Entries to the Future Lions are judged by AKQA’s Future Lions Council: Stephen Clements, Brendan DiBona, Duan Evans, James Hilton, Rei Inamoto, Ben Jones, Peter Lund, Rob McIntosh, Nick Turner, Johan Vakidis. Guest judges from Google also took part.