Alternative School designated the winners of the Eurobest semester
Oana Oprea and Diana Cobzaru– that were present in competition as Meraki team / scooped the 1st place at the 15th edition of the Alternative School Fall Semester, after intensive training sessions and rigorous selection.
The winning team, selected by a local and international jury, will represent Romania at the Eurobest Integrated contest, taking place in Poland, between 28th of November and December 2nd.
Dedicated to people under 30 from all areas of marketing, branding and communication related disciplines, this dense semester consisted of 7 meetings, focusing on emotional intelligence, kindful brands, foresight, business growth trends, ExO mindset, Design Thinking, tech & new medias, cultural insight, visual languages, content worth watching, private label intelligence & evolved markets.
Among the creative leaders who evaluated the teams were Alexandra Radu (Rogalski Damaschin), Inayeh Khalid (Mesteshukar ButiQ), Anders Lange (Entername), Bianca Dumitrascu (Caracter Cu Caracter), Daniel Tabac (Conduent HR Services), Miruna Mihalache (Albalact), David Blake (Cannes Lions), Sebastian Olar (Co-Creative Director), Filip Gonzacenco (Publicis Counseil Paris).
Students were put to test, solving 4 briefs with themes like: Team Identity, Customer Experience in HR, Creative Fundraising and Gender Gap topic for arts afficionados.
Diana Stafie – Future Station, Alina Catalina Banuleasa – Design Thinking Society, Ion Cojocaru – McCann, Anca Ifrim – Heist Industries, Miruna Mihalache – Albalact, Filip Gonzacenco – Publicis Paris, Mihai Gongu – Cheil, Isabella Branisteanu – Thinkegic and Teodora Migdalovici, School founder and the initiator of the Private Diplomacy Platform LoveAndLobby.com were their guides and mentors.
After hard work, succesive feedbacks and creativity blasts, the finalists were: Meraki (Oana Oprea / Jazz and Diana Cobzaru / Brand Minds) – 1st position, Alegoria Studio (Lavinia Amitroaie) – second and Echo (Denisa Andrei / Initiative and Alexandru Ilie / P&G) – third.
It was a great challenge for both of us to respond 360 to these briefs, but we liked the fact that it took us out of our comfort zone, because that’s we wished to happen in the first place. What made us emotional was the fact that we met 5 years ago, when we were doing volunteer work in highschool, doing advertising for a theatre festival, and now we randomly found each other in this school and we have the chance to represent Romania and to compete with young creatives from all over Europe. It is a great context to reflect on our evolution and a confirmation to the fact that we chose a path we are passionate about. We are grateful and cannot wait to go to Eurobest!
Oana Oprea and Diana Cobzaru
Oana Oprea is a Junior Creative Planner at one of the influential independent agencies in Romania, Jazz Communication. Like any millennial, she is passionate about digital, social media, the latest trends, memes and avocados. She is a wannabe everyday changemaker that believes in global warming and won’t have peace until she will be able to make a real difference in the world.
“What I liked most about this school was the fact that I met passionate people, which inspired me and from whom I learnt a lot!”
Diana Cobzaru is Community Manager at Brand Minds & Digitalium, two Romanian events on digital marketing and business. Diana is full of energy, always ready to ask you something and she gets involved in everything she can, being in a continuous search for cool new experiences. She puts her soul in everything she does in order to leave a positive mark on this world.
“This school is exactly what you need! You don’t have to think twice about applying because it is not only a school, but a life simulation!, said Diana.
Diana and Oana will compete for the Eurobest edition, alongside other creative teams from across Europe.
The Alternative School is training and exposing young talents at international creativity events since 2005, being the first institution focusing on high level education for the creative industry.