SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

AKQA presented the winning entries in its third annual Future Lions Competition at the Cannes Lions Festival held on Saturday, June 21 in Cannes, France. The global creative competition featured work from more than 600 students around the world. Nine lucky winners were introduced to the leading agencies attending the Cannes Lions Festival.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080624/NETU111 )

"This year's entries showcase the ingenuity of students entering today's advertising workforce," said Lars Bastholm, Co-Chief Creative Officer at AKQA. "These students are hungry, their talent is fierce and I recommend you hire them before they steal your job."

The Future Lions challenge is to develop an idea for advertising a brand in a way that would not have been possible five years ago. There are no rules in terms of media selection or technology; no restrictions around product or target audience; and no fee to enter. The five winning Future Lions concepts can now be viewed at www.futurelions.com :

-- Sharpie "Be Bold" by Jeremy Claud and Mollie Patesotti of VCU Adcenter -- BOBLBE-E "Trek-Tracker" by J.D. Humphreys of VCU Adcenter -- Maglite "Liteart" by Tomas Jonnson and Carl Fredrick Jennerfeldt of Berghs School of Communication -- Toyota Prius by Andy Pearson and Liza Behles of Creative Circus -- Starbucks "Signature" by Karen Gereffi and Katy Graham of Creative Circus

Additionally, the Miami Ad School in Hamburg was named the Future Lions "School of the Year" for achieving the greatest number of shortlist entries.

Previous Future Lions winners of 2006 and 2007 can be found producing innovative work for notable agencies such as Tribal DDB, Jung von Matt, Creature and Saatchi & Saatchi. Please visit www.futurelions.com.

About AKQA Future Lions

AKQA's annual Future Lions student advertising competition gives students a chance to shake up the advertising world at Cannes. The annual competition challenges students to develop an idea for advertising a global brand in a way that would not have been possible five years ago. There are no rules in terms of media selection or technology; no restrictions around product or target audience. A Future Lion redefines the medium and the message and influences the way media is consumed in the future.

About AKQA

AKQA is one of the world's most influential creative and technology companies. A recognized pioneer and innovator, AKQA provides ideas, insights, customer relationship marketing and e-commerce solutions to the world's leading brands. AKQA has offices in Amsterdam, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington DC. For more about AKQA, visit www.akqa.com.

www.futurelions.com www.akqa.com

Contact:

Molly Parsley, AKQA, +1-415-645-9473 or molly.parsley@akqa.com or Maya Hart, AKQA, +44-(0)20-7780-4797, maya.hart@akqa.com

Web site: http://www.akqa.com http://www.futurelions.com

Molly Parsley, +1-415-645-9473, molly.parsley@akqa.com, or Maya Hart, +44-(0)20-7780-4797, maya.hart@akqa.com, both of AKQA/Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080624/NETU111, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com