The Students at FJSC, Major in Advertising, Again in the Top 10 of the Most Prestigious Pan-european Advertising Competition, Adventure

Two teams of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the University of Bucharest, made up of students in Advertising, achieved remarkable results at the 15^th edition of the AdVenture competition, the most prestigious pan-European advertising competition, organized by EDCOM (European Institute for Commercial Communications Education).

In the competition in which 80 teams from all over Europe participated, the two teams coordinated by prof. Mădălina Moraru, PhD, teaching staff at FJSC, have reached the top 10. The finalists are preparing for the grand final, during which, on April 24, 2023, they will publicly present the campaign and the audio-video presentation of their creative ideas. On May 16-17, 2023, the last stage of judging will take place, and on May 17, 2023, the jury – made up of members from the international advertising industry, representatives of Lego and European specialist from the academic milieu – will announce the winners. The grand prize is the attendance to the Festival of Creativity in Cannes.

The campaign was extremely challenging: rebuilding the identity of the Lego catalog so that it becomes engaging again for 6-10 year old, in printed format. 

First Glass’ on Me and AdHeroes, the two finalist teams

The first FJSC finalist team, First Glass’ on Me, has a campaign called Beyond the Book. The team is made up of four passionate students, 3^rd year BA in Advertising, with a very good distribution of roles in an advertising agency (client service, art director, copywriter, and planner): Ana-Maria Dumitru, Ioana Petcu, Maria-Felicia Hodor, Andreea-Florentina Şipoș.“The Beyond the Book global campaign aims to re-launch the well-known LEGO catalog in a new form. Introducing LEGOPedia, the catalog with a new personality, funnier, interactive and informative for our favorite builders. For the little ones, LEGOPedia comes with a hardcover, in four annual editions, along with a new design and many nice surprises”, explained Ana Dumitru, one of the team members.

The campaign of the second finalist team, AdHeroes, which demonstrates by its name the courage to prepare for this challenging creative industry, is called Learning brick by brick. The members of this team are all second-year students, passionate about advertising and eager to learn how to best combine strategy with creativity. Isabelle Țone, Ramona Ioana Turcu, Isabelle Toma and Alexandru Tololoi propose a campaign in which the world of the little ones can be deconstructed and reconstructed with the help of the new Lego catalog in printed format.Although not among the finalist teams, FJSC has had also two other prestigious teams this year who have made a visible effort for five months to prepare this campaign.

The first team is called Out-of-Order and was made up of four members who collaborated very well, despite their age and different learning experiences: Carmen Olteanu, Cătălina Dobre (1^st year, MA in Advertising and Digital Communication), Carmela Stanciu and Cornel Munteanu (2^nd year, BA in Advertising).The other team is called Arrow Ladies and was made up of four highly motivated and inspired students: Călina-Georgiana Niță (2^nd year, BA in Advertising, very interested in research matters), Andreea Mihaela Iorgulescu (2^nd year, BA in Advertising, art team director), Bianca Oprea (2^nd year, BA in Advertising, strategy and research) and Lorena-Ella Enache (3^rd year, BA in Advertising, team copywriter).

“The work of the four teams shows the ability of the students to adapt to real demands on the labor market, all the more since the brief was genuine and the opportunity to solve it was genuine. In addition, empathizing with the world of Lego demonstrated the ability to build valuable insights at a strategic level that were then very well creatively developed”, emphasized prof. Mădălina Moraru, PhD, team coordinator.

At past editions, UB students achieved notable results

In the top 10 of the AdVenture competition, as at home. This is how we could describe the experience of the last years of UB participation in the competition.In almost every edition of the competition, FJSC students have qualified at least among the top 10 teams in Europe. In 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, they came in 2^nd place and 3^rd place frequently. For example, in 2012 the Me Gusta team, made up of students Alina Voinea, Răzvan Nepoțelu, Andrei Gândac and Alexandru Drăcea, were on the podium in Lisbon, after competitive efforts.

In the period 2015-2018, the students Bîea Patricia, Andreea Laura Rădoi, Oana Samoilă, Claudia Ignat, Raluca Ţurcănaşu, Iulia Novac participated in the Thesis Competition, managing to get a mention in the final.In 2020, the Pink team, made up of Flavius ​​Țăran, Alexandra Chițu, Silvia Voicu and Ana Sandu, received mention in this competition.In 2022, the Yellow Orange team, made up of the students Raluca Mihaela Lungoci, Ana-Maria Dumitru, Sarah Gherman and Vladimir Denis Ene – all students in the second year, BA in Advertising – broke down the barriers of the pandemic, fatigue, exam session and accepted the sacrifices of extra work and again brought the University of Bucharest, through the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, among the finalists of the AdVenture competition.In addition to the two teams from Romania, five more teams from France, two from Great Britain, one from Bulgaria and one from Belgium reached the finals (two teams out of the 11 selected being tied).

The ranking of the competition can be consulted here.

FJSC, Romania’s representative at the AdVenture and Graduation Competitions

For more than 13 years, the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the University of Bucharest has been the only educational institution in Romania that represented its country in the pan-European AdVenture and Graduation Competitions.Since 2008, FJSC has been member in EDCOM, the academic branch of EACA (European Association of Communications Agencies), with students entering competitions with international teams in solving real briefs, provided by various clients. In addition, in the management of EDCOM and in the Research Committee, Romania is represented by prof. Mădălina Moraru, PhD, also responsible for the training of students for participation in the competition.EDCOM’s slogan, Training Tomorrow’s Talents, fully expresses the advantages of participating in such an international competition, as students have the chance to work for commercial brands (Peroni Nastro Azzuro, Asahi, Coca-Cola, etc.) or prestigious NGOs.

We support them at the final presentation in May! Good luck!