• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 23, 2016

Mark Longacre and Catherine Young, both senior associates at GroupM’s Mindshare New York unit, took first place in the “media” category for the 2016 U.S. Young Lions competition. Their campaign strategy turned disposable coffee cups into a powerful medium.

More than 300 entries were submitted for the 2016 competition.

Teams from creative, digital, media and PR agencies were challenged to create campaigns and executions to drive new donations among Millennials for the Variety Freedom Program, which provides special needs equipment for physically impaired children.

The Mindshare team’s award-winning solution utilized the insight that Millennials “avoid advertising” and turned a favored pastime -- drinking coffee -- as a conveyance for promoting charitable giving.

The campaign featured disposable coffee cups printed with custom artwork created by children benefiting from the charity.

The Mindshare team, along with winning teams from AKQA (cyber category), KBS (film), Ogilvy Public Relations (PR) and Deutsch NY (print), each won one all-expenses paid trip to attend the Lions Festival in Cannes, France.