Cannes Lions introduces Young Media Academy headed by Media Contacts’ Maria Luisa Francoli

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Cannes Lions has launched the young media academy which will complete a line-up of six academies at this year’s Festival.

Aimed at young media professionals working within media agencies and media companies, the Cannes Lions Young Media Academy is a week-long structured programme focusing on creativity in media. The objective is to inspire, focusing on demonstrating the value and execution of creativity in media channels, whilst providing a greater understanding of the global media and advertising community.

During the programme delegates will develop a deeper understanding of the impact of creativity, how to manage relationships between the idea, the media channel and consumer behaviour and gain insight into the major issues and challenges that lie ahead.

The class will follow a bespoke week of exclusive academy presentations and will include:

Understanding and providing effectiveness – case studies and presentations from previous Creative Effectiveness Lions winners

How do clients judge creativity? The breakdown of a Lion winning campaign presented by the client and agency

Understanding the ways clients think and act – insights from global brands

Deconstructing analytics and metrics in a creative advertising world

Understanding the challenges of social media and measuring ROI

The technological evolution of media, channels and consumers’ behaviour – presentations from technologists and developers

Leading the Academy will be Maria Luisa Francoli (pictured above), Founder of global digital agency Media Contacts and former Global CEO for the global media network MPG. Throughout her career Francoli has made creativity in media a priority and has allocated time and resources to ensuring that creativity would permeate the entire organisation.

As Dean of the Young Lions Media Academy Francoli says, “I am thrilled with this initiative and feel very honoured to have been invited to lead the academy. The fact that Cannes is allocating so much attention and resources to promote creativity among young media professionals is great news for the industry and a wonderful privilege for the first 35 members of the academy. I will do my best to ensure that we all take maximum advantage of the opportunity!”

Commenting on the addition of a new media academy, Steve Latham, Head of Talent & Training, Cannes Lions says, “Understanding how creativity can be used within media strategy is essential if the industry wants to innovate. This academy will provide inspiration and tailored training in a focused and distilled environment. We’re delighted that Maria Luisa, with her wealth of experience and knowledge, will be leading the academy.”

The academy will run throughout the Festival week from Sunday 16 June to Saturday 22 June and is open to young media professionals aged 28 and under. The cost of the academy is €1,945 and details of how to take part can be found online or by emailing academies@canneslions.com.