Author: Anna Fanchini

We are happy to announce that this year’s Ad Venture jury will bring together 24 leading agencies and 13 academic institutions from across Europe, enriching both the competition and the experience for young talents.

The Ad Venture Competition 2025-2026, in collaboration with Kraft Heinz, one of the world’s leading food companies, allows students to tackle real-life marketing challenges and showcase their creativity, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.

This year’s jury will review and evaluate the submitted projects based on creativity, strategic thinking, and overall effectiveness. Their combined expertise ensures a rigorous, fair, and inspiring evaluation process for all participants.

We are proud to collaborate with such accomplished professionals and look forward to their valuable insights and contributions throughout this year’s edition of Ad Venture.

Meet the agencies and academic institutions joining this year’s Ad Venture jury:

Agencies:

Meet the agencies and academic partners joining this year’s Ad Venture jury:

Agencies:

• 180HB — Poland
• All Channels Group — Bulgaria
• BetterSvit — Ukraine
• dentsu — Italy
• EssenceMediacom Poland — Poland
• HeimatTBWA — Germany
• Hvita used — Iceland
• Innocean — Germany
• Kantar
• McCann Worldgroup Romania — Romania
• McCann Manchester — United Kingdom
• McCann Worldgroup Spain — Spain
• Media First Ukraine — Ukraine
• Next Different — Italy
• Pastel — Romania
• REBORNN — Greece
• Robert Boison & Likeminded — Denmark
• SEK — Finland
• TBWA\Italy — Italy
• TBWA\Warsaw — Poland
• THIS IS LOCCO — Slovakia
• WOPA — Romania
• White Label — Latvia

Academic Institutions:

• Deree – The American College of Greece
• FSPAC – College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences
• Howest – University College West Flanders
• ISCOM Paris
• King’s College London
• New Bulgarian University
• Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens
• Pantheon-Assas University, Paris
• The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
• Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium
• Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czechia
• University for the Creative Arts, UK
• University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Austria

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The December Edcom Members’ Meeting took place on 9 December at the WPP Campus in Brussels, gathering educators and industry partners for an afternoon of constructive discussion and collaboration. A warm thank you to all who joined and contributed to another successful edition.

Updates from the Secretariat

The Secretariat shared the latest developments across the network. While edcom continues to attract interest from institutions, recent departures and persistent regional gaps highlight the need to strengthen recruitment efforts, particularly in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Europe. Members were encouraged to invite potential partners and to engage with their National Associations (NACs), which can support mobility and membership processes.

Highlights from the Presentations

The agenda featured three insightful presentations.
• The Public Affairs update offered an overview of major EU digital and media regulations, including the AI Act, the Democracy Shield, and new rules on political advertising.
Access to the presentation is exclusive to EACA/edcom members. Please email anna.fanchini@eaca.eu or francesco.bottegal@eaca.eu to receive the materials.

• The Ad Net Zero update reflected on this year competition’s judging process, shared survey results, and outlined opportunities for deeper collaboration on sustainability.

•The AI & Immersive Technologies in Education presentation highlighted the importance of a structured approach to integrating AI and immersive technologies in education. It also emphasized fostering student creativity by encouraging them to start projects without AI.

Key Themes and Strategic Directions

Discussions throughout the meeting centred on edcom’s future strategy. Members reviewed the development of the Value Proposition, which will help articulate what edcom offers to students, programme leaders, universities, industry partners, and alumni. Strengthening industry collaboration, enhancing alumni visibility, and supporting student employability were identified as central priorities.

AI and immersive technologies were also key themes, with members underscoring the importance of building AI literacy while encouraging students to begin the creative process independently before using AI tools.

Want to learn more about the meeting? Click here and access the full report.

Showcasing the Next Generation of Creative Talent at Effie Europe Day

On 10 December, during Effie Europe Day, edcom celebrated student excellence at the All Hands Meeting held at the Art & History Museum in Brussels. The 2025 Ad Venture winners, Charlotte van Roessel and Giulia Wolf, presented their project, which scooped first place at this year’s edcom Adventure Student Competition, organised in partnership with Taylor of Harrogate.
The session also featured the Ad Net Zero winners, Lélia Bterrani and Rory Harrison, who presented their sustainability‑driven project: a short creative video designed to educate and inspire audiences about Action 5 of the Ad Net Zero framework, which promotes sustainable consumer behaviour. Their compelling approach further reinforced edcom’s commitment to responsible creativity. Watch their winning project now.

Looking Ahead

Preparations are underway for the March 2026 Members’ Meeting, which will include expanded training elements. Members also expressed strong interest in organising an all-day online Green Conference during Black Friday week next year.

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