Cairns Crocodiles began with a healthy sense of irreverence – a tropical Australian response to the glamour of Cannes Lions. Originally called ‘Cannes in Cairns’, the name itself was the joke.

So how did a festival that started as a playful industry parody end up hosting a student brief from the United Nations Foundation focused on helping save 87 million lives?

That was the question I found myself thinking about while attending Cairns Crocodiles for the first time as President of the Hatchlings Design jury.

Students from across APAC first competed remotely in a Round One brief, with the winning teams earning a trip to Cairns to compete live at the festival in Round Two. Once there, finalists were given just 24 hours to respond to a live brief built around the UN Foundation’s newly launched ‘Reunite for Humanity’ platform.

The challenge was immense: create ideas capable of motivating brands, businesses and the public across Asia-Pacific to help raise USD$23 billion and save 87 million lives.

At the centre of the brief was a sharp insight: the subscription economy has normalised millions of people automatically paying small monthly amounts for convenience and entertainment. So, what if that same behaviour could be redirected towards something more meaningful?

The ambition was to make ‘the global personal’, reframing humanitarian aid not as charity, but as an ongoing subscription to humanity itself.

A huge ask, even for experienced agencies, yet the teams responded with remarkable strategic depth, cultural intelligence and creative ambition.

What impressed me most wasn’t just the craft. It was the quality of thinking underneath it.

These students instinctively understood participation, platform culture and modern behaviour. They moved beyond traditional charity advertising and looked for ways to embed the idea into entertainment, gaming, creators, subscriptions and everyday digital habits. Despite having only 24 hours, many responses rivalled real-world agency thinking.

What also stood out was their use of AI. These students used the tools throughout the process, not to replace creativity, but to amplify it. They understood where technology could help and where human thinking still had to lead.

At a time when many are quick to point to signs of the industry’s decline, Cairns Hatchlings felt like evidence of the opposite. For a generation raised on tech and AI, there was still plenty of brilliant creativity on display and thankfully, it was being used in the right way.