Digital, viral, YouTube, 48-hour long campaigns are elements borrowed from the trend shifts towards online media, for a competing 'Team YouTube' at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

The festival in collaboration with YouTube yesterday named Andrew Dobbie (25) who works at JWT Manchester, United Kingdom, and Rachel Wolak (28) who works at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Colorado, US, as members of this team to compete with 39 other teams in this year's Young Lions Film Competition in Cannes.

Both Dobbie and Wolak were chosen to be on the team after they had won the viral ad competition to promote WaterAid, an organisation that works to bring safe water and sanitation to some of the world's poorest communities, and the 2010 competition's charity partner.

WaterAid had unveiled a brief on May 15 for about 530 young creatives participating in the competition across the world to create a short ad of up to one minute and upload it onto YouTube to promote their 'Don't let it drop' campaign.

The ads aimed to get viewers to sign WaterAid's petition demanding that world leaders not let water and sanitation drop from the international agenda when they meet to review the progress of the Millennium Development Goals in September.

Creatives were given 48 hours to submit their ad and then had a further two weeks to make their YouTube ad go viral by any means necessary and obtain as many votes as possible. The competition received 75,600 votes in two weeks.

Dobbie and Wolak were chosen based on the overall creative execution of the brief and the videos' public votes. They will be awarded an all expenses paid trip to Cannes to attend the International Advertising Festival and participate in the Young Lions Film competition.

Anna Bateson, Director of YouTube marketing Emea, said: "We are delighted that this competition has drawn a healthy level of interest for the second year running and look forward to seeing 'Team YouTube' compete with the best young talent at Cannes."

Chris Baylis, Executive Creative Director of TribalDDB Amsterdam and one of the contest judges, said: "It's inspiring and exciting to see how, in just 48 hours, well-executed creative ideas can be drawn into a concept and produced."

Last year, the 48 Hour YouTube Cannes Young Lions Ad Contest received 692 entries and over 100,000 votes.

Meanwhile, Unilever was named Advertiser of the Year for this current edition of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Iain Potter, VP Marketing, Unilever, told Emirates Business that the "award is well deserved as Unilever has consistently over the years created advertising that is innovative, yet relevant and thought provoking. A great example being the advertising of Omo that has gone beyond the product based 'my molecule is better than your molecule' type of advertising into the territory of educating mothers on the importance of play in a child's development."