Advertising students short-listed for Cannes

In collaboration with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Future Lions is the annual worldwide competition that challenges students to create the future.

The Cannes Future Lions brief was assigned to RMIT’s third year students in the Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) as part of their Advanced Creative Course assessment.

The theme was to "connect an audience of their choosing to a product or service from a global brand in a way that wasn’t possible three years ago”.

Using sensor technology, one group (Georgina Bird and Matthew Ebeling) empowered players on neighbourhood basketball courts to complete in a global game of hoops.

Another group (Alicia Mitchell, Heath Schmidt, Courtney Sombekke and Sebastian Covino) used heart beats combined with phone technology, to safeguard people out on the streets.

While the next group, Janice Ko, Carissa Finneren, Gwendolyn Tan and Belle Chen suggested harvesting noise pollution and turn it into energy.

In each case global brands were able to able to create communities, offer personal protection and sustainable energy as never before.

Dr Michelle Aung Thin who lectures in the program said it was great to see RMIT students shortlisted for Future Lions again.

“These are the industry's future creative leaders and it's gratifying to see their commitment so early in their careers,” Thin said.

As with previous years, RMIT students have very successfully competed with others from right around the world.

Student Courtney Sombekke was part of a team that worked on heart rate monitor that keeps women safe at night.

"The one thing I would say about Future Lions is you don't really know what you're capable of until you're forced to push yourself beyond it.”

“It was a really interesting learning curve and I am really proud of how far our group pushed ourselves and each other," Sombekke said.

Alongside the individual awards, the school with the highest number of shortlists will be recognised as the Future Lions “School of the Year.”

The Cannes Future Lions entries from RMIT’s third year students will be on display at RMIT Open Day Sunday August 14 and on Pitch Night in October when the industry is invited to check out this year’s rising stars.

Winners will be announced on 22 June 2016.

Story: Wendy Little