Lessons Learned: Navigating the Young Lions Competition with Creativity and Strategy

By: Rebecca McLaren, Senior Account Manager

Win or lose, Young Lions was an opportunity for myself and my partner to fully own a plan from start to finish. Not only did it put our industry knowledge to the test, but it also challenged us creatively and allowed us to dream up blue-sky ideas for an important cause, reinforcing what I love most about my field of work.

Here are just a few things I learned throughout the competition:

1. Take time to think independently. The first thing my partner and I did when we got the brief was read it individually and take our own notes. While a lot of our initial thoughts ended up being the same, we each pulled a few nuggets the other hadn't thought about, helping us avoid groupthink and leading to a stronger end result. 

2. Don't rush into a solution. The pressure of a 24-hour turnaround had my partner and I itching to "crack the case," but we knew that careful research of our target and a thoughtful insight were what would best lead us there. Though we became set on a potential solution early on and didn't expect ourselves to budge, once the final insight came together, we challenged ourselves to reassess the fit and (unsurprisingly) came up with an idea we loved even more!

3. Write to edit. With a 10-slide maximum and no guaranteed ability to present our deck, my partner and I made an effort to be deliberate about the final copy we chose to include and how it was written. While we were excited about our idea and could see it coming to life, we consistently asked ourselves if everything we were talking about was there in the deck - and if it was being articulated as clearly as it could be.