2020/2021 Ad Venture Winners are Announced

The winners of the 2020–2021 Ad Venture international student competition were announced yesterday during an online event. Ad Venture is the first Pan-European competition which gives students the opportunity to experience what it is like to work in advertising by creating their own campaign in response to a brief from a real client.

This year’s competition saw 63 high-quality entries from 19 universities in 10 countries. After two rounds of judging, video presentations and a live online Q&A, Sara Perche Ti Amo from Paris University 2 Panthéon-Assas were declared the winners. The brief came from Asahi, who challenged the teams to create a communications campaign to launch a mid-strength Peroni beer in the UK, Romania and the Netherlands.

Ysé Grégoire-Sainte Marie, Emmanuelle Lignon, Yanis Mahlous and Léa Meynadier impressed the jury with their brand insights and a bold proposal that used Italy’s artistic heritage to launch the new product. The winning team are awarded travel, accommodation and tickets to the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Team Kuckoo from Bournemouth University was given a special mention for their research work and Whoosh Agency from Sup de Pub in Paris for their creative ideas.

In the last stage of the competition, the finalist teams’ work was seen by jurors representing the client, industry and academia. Asahi was represented by Grant McKenzie (CMO), Richard Ingram (Global Brands Director) and Stefan Teodorescu (Head of Marketing Capability). The other jurors were Paolo Cesarini (formerly at the European Commission), Julie Frédérickx (Senior Strategic Planner, Ogilvy Social.Lab), Heini Hussam (Marketing Strategist, SOK), Alexandre Duarte (IADE), Kirstie Riedl (FH Wien) and Paul Springer (Falmouth University). The jury was chaired by Leonard Savage, Senior Creative Director at McCann Prague.

“This was the complete package, where we felt that from beginning to end, the story was tight,” said Leonard Savage of the winning team’s work.

“There are five things that really matter for a client. First one is, how do you get from facts to insights? Two, taking that insight and putting it behind a creative idea for the brand. Three, is this an idea for real people on the international market? Four, is this an idea that we haven’t seen before? And finally, it’s the team. Do I trust these people? When we looked at the winner, the answer to these five criteria was a resounding yes,” Grant McKenzie explained the jury’s reasoning and provided top tips for future Ad Venture participants. 

Emmanuelle Lignon from the winning team said: “It is quite difficult to summarise our journey, because we have experienced so many things, exchanged with different people and professionals, had the opportunity to imagine and create as a united team, competing with schools from all over the world. We are really proud to have won this great competition, but even more because we truly enjoyed this adventure and working together on a really exciting subject!” Léa Meynadier added: “I learned two important things during this competition, the first one is to believe in a creative idea anyway and the second is to have a great team to make it happen. Many thanks to edcom and the client, Asahi.”

Jack Donaldson from Team Kuckoo said: “This is no opportunity to be overlooked. It has been amazing to see some of the amazing talent across Europe, with their incredible campaigns.” Teammate Francesca Smith added: “I will always remember this experience and make use of the advice given to enhance my future career.”

Team Whoosh said: “This competition was the highlight of our year, such a challenging and stimulating opportunity! This experience taught us to stick together and stay motivated even though the road was sometimes bumpy.”

The organisers, edcom and the European Association of Communications Agencies would like to thank all the student teams and the jurors who took part in this year’s Ad Venture competition.