- Getty Images marks its 20th anniversary by looking to the future, nurturing the next generation of creative talent at this year's festival

LONDON, June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, the world's leader in visual communication, celebrates creative freedom at this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as it marks 20 years since the company's inception. Getty Images will launch a programme of activity recognising the power of creative freedom and embracing the young talent that are pushing the boundaries of creativity across the globe.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121018/SF95656LOGO

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150610/222187

Getty Images has sponsored the Young Lions competition for 18 consecutive years and this year, award-winning Getty Images photographer, Gareth Cattermole, will be on site encouraging the industry's best young minds to showcase their creative thinking through the power of portrait photography. Young Lions participants will be invited to an exclusive Getty Images photography studio to demonstrate their creativity and have their portrait taken. Getty Images is the exclusive supplier of content for the seven Young Lions competitions, supporting the world's top young creatives as they compete around the clock to create an award-winning campaign for a charity, created entirely from Getty Images and iStock by Getty Images content.

At this year's festival, Getty Images will look to the future, exploring themes such as Wonderlust – a new style of imagery celebrating the wonder of space, nature and spirituality – of which requests have increased by 30 per cent in the last year. More new trends are to be announced over the week as the company predicts what the next year of creative freedom will bring. Getty Images founded visual trend research in 1995 and remains the only company with an international creative research team, exploring trends and the changing meaning of imagery in advertising and wider visual culture.

Susan Smith Ellis, Chief Marketing Officer, Getty Images says: "This year at Cannes Lions we are focusing on the nurturing of future talent and encouraging the next generation to embrace creative freedom. These young creatives will drive the industry forward and establish new ways of working. Getty Images has spent the last 20 years demonstrating the power of imagery, and as new forms of visual media continue to evolve - such as augmented storytelling and virtual reality - now is an exciting time to shape and redefine the future of visual communication."

In celebration of its anniversary, Getty Images has launched two campaigns with AlmapBBDO, which have been submitted to the Cannes Lions juries. The first highlights the company's 20 year anniversary through a unique visual timeline, looking back at the changing faces of high profile personalities over the last two decades. The second campaign, focuses on iStock by Getty Images' exceptional yet affordable video content, using a series of mock television commercials to demonstrate that epic communications don't have to come at a high price.

About Getty Images:

Getty Images is the world's leader in visual communication, with over 180 million assets available through its premium content site www.gettyimages.com and its leading stock content site www.istock.com. With its advanced search and image recognition technology, Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its award-winning photographers and content creators help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world's most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and online media. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life. For company news and announcements, visit press.gettyimages.com, and for the stories, innovation and inspiration behind our content, visit Stories & Trends http://stories.gettyimages.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gettyimages , Twitter at https://twitter.com/GettyImages, or download Stream, our free consumer app, to view and share the world's best imagery.

Contact: pressusa@gettyimages.com

Related Links

http://www.gettyimages.com

SOURCE Getty Images