The idea that *almost* won the UK Young Lions PR competition
By: Laura Santillana | Lead Creative
No, we didn’t bring home the gold at UK Young Lions this year. But as the runners up in a prestigious industry competition that attracted 49 other digital pr agencies, we’re proud of what we created and are eager to share what we made and how we got there.
The PRCA Young Lions PR competition is like an under-30’s PR bootcamp. Teams of two have 24 hours to turn a brief into a campaign using 10 slides. This year, fittingly, the client was Chester Zoo. The budget was £1,000 and the campaign had five objectives:
Increase the number of visits to the zoo (including attracting new zoo members) over its crucial summer period.
Increase public awareness of the zoo’s charitable status and understanding of the role in zoos in conservation, to enhance its reputation as a scientific and conservation organisation.
Spark online conversation and drive traffic to www.chesterzoo.org
Inspire support for the zoo in ways other than an increased footfall – encouraging donations, animal adoptions and purchases from its online gift shop.
Empower people to live more sustainably for the benefit of wildlife.
Here’s our answer to the brief:
The Kama Zootra: a life-enhancing guide with a life-giving message.
Here’s how we got there:
Lengthy foreplay
As soon as we received the brief, the post-it notes and sharpies were out in force. We wrote down every sentence that caught our eye and every idea that materialised in our minds, then put it on the wall. This step was hours long as we then branched from those post-it notes until we had webs of words and phrases.
Closer to the climax
We now stood in the middle of word-covered walls and noticed that a lot of them fell into three different categories. We clustered them into groups and themes started to appear before us. At this point, we had three ideas that we thought had winning potential - a desirable position for any young lion, but time was ticking and we had to commit.
Walk it off
Walks were a key part to our process. Every time we hit a wall, we’d go out for a 20 minute stroll (we actually got 10,000 steps in that day). Clear heads meant creative thinking and it was, in fact, while pounding the pavements that the title “Kama Zootra” was *ahem* conceived.
Sustaining stamina
Receiving the brief at 10am, we finalised the Kama Zootra idea around 6:30pm that day. We then spent the next 14 hours straight bringing it to life, pouring our respective PR and creative content skills into an idea we had unfaltering faith in. Laura meticulously hand-drew the instructive illustrations and media mock-ups, while Amy drafted authentic influencer captions and headlines. We kept going until we knew there was nothing we would change.
When it comes to tackling a creative brief and content curation in a tight timeframe, play to your strengths — and find a partner with a complementary skillset and personality — invest extra time where you need to and, ultimately, have fun.
Initially, the ideation process can feel like entering the wilderness. There are so many routes you can take and ‘the unknown’ awaits but let that adrenaline fuel you. It’s important to trust your instinct, revel in the moment and—as our experience shows—just keep walking.
By Laura Santillana and Amy Kimber