APN Outdoor has announced the winners of the Australian Young Lions Competition during an official award ceremony at the Sydney Opera House last night.

Myles Haslam and Caitlin West from Bohemia Group, NSW took the top prize in the category of Media.

Tristan Viney from Eardrum and Rosie Stone from Loud Communications won the category of Digital, while Nathan Kwok and Jill Harmon from CommBank collected the award in the category of Marketing.

From nearly 200 submissions to the Australian Young Lions Competition, a panel of over 65 respected senior industry members narrowed the entries to three finalist teams in each category.

This evening the 18 finalists competed in a final round to win a trip to the 65th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next month, where they will take part in the international Cannes Young Lions Competition.

Given just 24 hours to respond to a brief focused on KidsXpress – a charity established in 2006 to offer innovative early-intervention trauma therapy to children in the form of art, music, play and drama – the finalists pitched their responses live to a judging panel earlier in the day.

APN Outdoor CEO and MD James Warburton said, “In our first year as the Australian representative for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Young Lions Competition has been a fantastic experience.

“As a company strongly committed to promoting creativity and fostering young talent in our industry, it is an honour to play such a crucial role in the competition, the results of which I know are highly-anticipated by media agencies, creative agencies and marketers across the country.”

During his speech at tonight’s awards ceremony, Warburton said, “APN Outdoor is committed to creating opportunities for brands to have better, more meaningful connections with consumers.

“Combine this with our firm belief that creativity is at the heart of that connection and working with Cannes Lions is a dream opportunity.

“APN Outdoor would like to thank all the Young Lions entrants for their dedication, passion and commitment to pushing the boundaries of our industry and making the Young Lions Competition such an important part of their young professional life – and of our industry.”

Myles, Caitlin, Nathan, Jill, Tristan and Rosie will travel to Cannes next month, where they will represent Australia is another 24-hour brief as part of the Cannes Young Lions Competition.