Gold for Denmark

One young talent plus another young talent equals outstanding creative thinking – plus a gold win in this year’s Cannes Young Lions Design Competition.

Tonight the two young talents in question, Marcus Mahecha and Jonas Hjort, will be crowned at the official award show in Cannes, cementing their position at the very top of the future of creative design.

The Young Lions Design Competition is an international competition for young professionals aged 31 years or younger. Every year the national teams are briefed by a charity or NGO about a brand challenge that they have 24 hours to solve - this year the challenge was proposed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

WWF's mission is to create a safer world for wildlife, preserve unique nature, and create a future where we live in harmony with our planet. This work is greatly supported by donors worldwide via the sub-brand WWFGifts offering a variety of consumer goods – and while this donation model is successful, it involves limiting and costly operational complexities and struggles to engage younger audiences globally.

To be frank.

The engagement model lacks a digital presence and doesn’t speak to Gen Z and Millennials.

It’s too costly for WWF - and most importantly - it’s too costly for our ecosystem.

To bridge the gap Marcus and Jonas created a digital universe that combines the 90’s worldwide hit game Tamagotchi’s knack for engaging youth with WWF’s unmatched expertise in wildlife conservation.

The result is an online wildlife simulation game called MyBeastie®.

The dynamics of MyBeastie® are the same as those of the traditional Tamagotchi game – but instead of revolving around an imaginary and domesticated creature, MyBeastie® allows players to sustain the life of virtual wildlife by purchasing in-game feed to enable real donations to the animals’ physical counterparts.

One Marcus Mahecha plus one Jonas Hjort equals the dream team behind MyBeastie®.

A well-designed simulation game that meets the requirements of a digitalised Gen Z and Millennial generation – exchanging physical goods for digital ones in the pursuit of making the world a little bit better for our wildlife.

The Cannes Young Lions Design Competition is part of the international festival of creativity - Cannes Lions. A festival celebrating creative excellence since 1954. website.