The inaugural finalists of the Cairns Hatchlings, presented by Yahoo! have been a announced, selected by a panel of top industry judges based on their boundary-pushing creativity and fresh thinking. The competition was open to talent from all across the Asia-Pacific region.
The finalists are:
Audio – Sponsored by Acast
- Meg Mayger & Jack McBryde, Nova Entertainment — Australia
- Sarah Brighton & Sally Fiddes, Ogilvy — Australia
- Shilpi Dey & Shabbir Abbas, VML — India
Design
- Annabel Begeng & Lily Lazzarotti, Thinkerbell —Australia
- Veerisa Boonrod, ESIC & Atipa Rungrojboon, Boonrawd Trading —Thailand
- Annabel Cook & Maddy Merzvinskis, Re Design — Australia
Digital – Sponsored by Reddit
- Annabelle Harrington, AFFINITY & Sophie Millar, The Insight Culture — Australia
- Amy Peden, +61 and TBWA & Stephen Hanna, Playside Studios — Australia
- Hilary O’Sullivan & Hughie Flannery, Thinkerbell — Australia
Marketing – Sponsored by Boomtown
- Jarrod Schwager, Mad Mex & Campbell Johnson, Amazon Prime Video — Australia
- Keira Spencer & Laura Currie, Google — Australia
- Olivia Ford & Laura Jeffries, Google — Australia
Media – Sponsored by Yahoo!
- Ben Breden & Leah Franco, Initiative — Australia
- Olivia Casamento & Ashley Hill, Match & Wood — Australia
- Summer Treseder & Kate O’Loughlin, Wavemaker — Australia
PR
- Claudia Warren & Francesca Hampton, Havas Red — Australia
- William Cullen & Airlie Walters, Thinkerbell — Australia
- Rauf Shaik & Komal Nathani, VML — India
Video – Sponsored by Publica
- Thomas Carr & Louis Tanner, oOh!media — Australia
- Ryan Williams & Emmerson Maclean, Out Of The Square Media — Australia
The next step for the Hatchlings is a series of live challenges over 24 hours in Cairns culminating in a live pitch session, masterclasses, and then the Awards night on May 15 where the winner will be announced.
More information and tickets to the Cairns Crocodiles event are here: https://cairnscrocodiles.jomablue.com/reg/store/cairns_crocs_2025