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ENTRIES OPEN


A free global competition for the next generation of creative leaders

The Ad Age Young Creatives Contest is back, giving young talent the chance to showcase their skills, bold ideas and creative vision—and win a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. For 2025, we're partnering with Zappi and inviting entrants to create one compelling piece of creative—a single image, a tagline, new packaging or a video—for a fictional brand of sparkling water.


Deadline

Monday, April 21, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET.

Enter now

Download entry kit

YOUR GUIDE TO 2025

 
Contest info
This year's brief
Eligibility & criteria
FAQs
Terms & conditions

If your question isn't answered, please contact .

2025 CONTEST INFO


The global contest is free and open to students, full-time agency creatives and freelance creatives who are age 30 or under on June 18, 2025. You must be 30 or younger on June 18 to qualify.

Ad Age and Zappi will announce a number of finalists, but only one winner (or creative duo) will be selected.
 

The prize

🏆   A trip to the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where you’ll experience one of the industry’s most prestigious celebrations of creative excellence.
🏆   Guest of honor at the annual Ad Age Lawn Party, an exclusive event at Cannes Lions.
🏆   An opportunity to present a new iteration of your creative piece based on feedback from Zappi’s consumer insights platform.
 

The final deadline to enter is Monday, April 21, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET.


Please read the brief and follow the instructions. Only entries submitted via AdAge.com/YoungCreatives will be entered into the contest.

THE BRIEF


Bold ideas. Real insights. Powered by Zappi

Using the AI concept development agents within the Zappi platform, we’ve created a new sparkling water, called Cannes Eau on the Go. The product captures the essence of creativity celebrated at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

With eco-friendly aluminum bottles featuring interactive labels that celebrate innovative campaigns, and flavors like “Insight Peony” and “Bold Bergamot,” this refreshing beverage stimulates and inspires creativity. Designed for marketing professionals and creative trendsetters who are based in the United States, Cannes Eau on the Go embodies both artistic flair and sustainability, offering a stylish, eco-conscious experience.
 

The creative challenge

❑   Develop a visual creative execution that brings this fictional product’s identity to life—just as you would for a real-world client. This could take the form of packaging, billboards, digital activations (including video or static assets) or other brand expressions that fit the file requirements.

❑   Submit a short, written pitch explaining the idea behind your creative execution—what inspired it, how it connects to the brand and what you could do to refine or iterate on the idea with consumer insights.

❑   The winner and finalists will receive exclusive consumer insights from Zappi—offering a rare opportunity to understand how audiences respond to their creative. Specifically, you will learn what resonates well with the target audience and what their likes or dislikes are about your creative execution.

 
What we’re looking for

✔   Creativity and originality: How bold, fresh, and engaging is the idea?
✔   Strategic execution: Does the pitch effectively explain the creative choices and their relevance to the brand?
✔   Flexibility: Does the creative approach show an openness to iteration, considering how consumer insights could elevate the original idea?

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ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS

 

The contest is free to enter and is open to full-time agency creatives, freelance creatives and students aged 30 and under.

❑    Entries must be a visual creative execution that brings the fictional brand to life—this could be a billboard, digital ad, promotional video, packaging design or other form of brand expression.

❑    Creative work should be a single image or a video that’s no more than 30 seconds in length.
➤ Images should be a high-resolution .jpg or .png file, no more than 100MB in size.
➤ Videos should be an .mp4 (recommended) or .mov file, no more than 100MB in size.

❑    Entrants must also submit a short, written pitch (350 words max) explaining:
➤ The concept and what inspired it
➤ How it connects with the fictional brand and its audience
➤ How insights could drive an even bigger, more impactful campaign

❑    Entries must be original work, entirely crafted using traditional or digital tools. AI-generated or AI-assisted visuals are not permitted.


Deadline

The final deadline for Young Creatives submissions is Monday, April 21, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET.

Download entry kit

Need ideas? See the cheat sheet

Enter now

 

Questions?

Visit our FAQs section. If your question isn't answered, please contact .

FAQs

The program is open to students, full-time agency creatives and freelance creatives who are age 30 or under on June 18, 2025. You must be 30 or younger on June 18 to qualify.

We accept duos. Both team members have to be under the age of 30 as of June 18, 2025 to qualify. Teams with more than two people are not eligible to apply.

All entries are free and you can enter as many times as you like.

Not at all! This is a global contest and those based outside the U.S. are welcome to enter.

Please note that all submissions should be written in English.

Once you've finished your image or video that brings the Cannes Eau on the Go product to life, you will need to upload the file and fill out the entry form at AdAge.com/YoungCreatives.

You can create a single image or a video that’s no more than 30 seconds in length.
• Images should be a high-resolution .jpg or .png file, no more than 100MB in size.
• Videos should be an .mp4 (recommended) or .mov file, no more than 100MB in size.

While it is not a requirement, the entry forms also allow you to share supporting materials—sketches, mockups, concept art, notes and more—so judges can better understand how you arrived at your final piece.

This contest is about creativity and the power of original ideas and human imagination. Entrants are not permitted to submit previously published work, work that is not their own or work they do not have permission to use or publish.

Given the copyright and intellectual property issues surrounding artificial intelligence platforms (as well as the platforms’ own terms and conditions), entrants are not permitted to submit AI-generated or AI-assisted work.

Unfortunately, no. Anything included in an entry should be considered as public information. There’s no space for explicitly confidential information, and we ask entrants to anticipate that anything in their entry could become public—mostly because we don’t want to wind up trying to honor a winner without being able to tell anyone why we want to honor them.

The deadline for all entries is Monday, April 21, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET..

Judges will be looking for:
• Creativity and originality: How bold, fresh, and engaging is the idea?
• Strategic execution: Does the pitch effectively explain the creative choices and their relevance to the brand?
• Flexibility: Does the creative approach show an openness to iteration, considering how consumer insights could elevate the original idea?

You can submit as many entries as you want.

Unfortunately, once you have submitted your entry, you will not be able to log in to edit the form in any way. If there is factual information that is incorrect, please contact the awards team to request a change.

Please note changes cannot be made once the final deadline has passed and judging has started.

Ad Age will notify winners and finalists in May using the contact information supplied in the entry form; the winner will be publicly announced in June.

Our awards team is here to help with any technical issues you might experience. Please contact .

Your account on AdAge.com is separate from the account used for the Young Creatives Contest or any other Ad Age award programs. When you click "Enter now," be sure to register a new account—unless you've previously submitted to our awards and already have one. If you’re still having trouble logging in, please email awards@adage.com.

CONTACT US

 

Got questions? We're happy to help

Award Inquiries:  awards@adage.com