Author: edcom Team

We are delighted to present this year’s winners of the edcom Graduation Competition, Napsugár and Ines, that with their outstanding thesis were awarded first place, respectively in the Bachelor and Master category. Thanks to their effort, both will receive a cash prize of 400 euros. 

With the aim of promoting excellence in education in commercial communication and research, the edcom Graduation competition rewards the best graduation works in advertising and commercial communication among students from the edcom member schools. The competition is open to both Bachelor and Master students, providing a great opportunity to stand out and receive a cash prize.  

Do you want to know more about the competition, the entry requirements, and the Judging Criteria? Take a look at the ‘edcom Graduation competition’ page.   

The 2024 Winners 

After two rounds of juror’s deliberation, Napsugár Gulyás, from the Breda University of Applied Science, was awarded the first prize in the Bachelor category. Her outstanding work ‘Exploring Ways to Direct Viewers Attention in 360 Degree Films’ was recognized as the best bachelor thesis of the competition. Following the great achievement, Napsugár told us “I am deeply honoured to accept this award. Crafting my thesis was a journey filled with challenges and self-doubt, but I persevered. Winning this competition reaffirms that determination and hard work truly pay off. Let this be a reminder to never underestimate your own potential, for greatness awaits those who refuse to give up.” 

In the Master Category, Ines Muthenthaler, from the FH Wiener Neustadt, won the first prize with her exceptional thesis ‘The Importance of Brand Purpose in Green Brand Communication: Differences in the Perception of the Credibility of Brand Purpose in Storytelling from the Perspective of Consumers’. We are happy to share a few words from her “Exploring the credibility of green brands’ purpose in sustainability communication has been an immensely enriching journey, shaping not only my academic pursuits but also deepening my understanding of the interaction between marketing and sustainability. Having my work selected for submission to Edcom came as both a delightful surprise and a tremendous honor, and I am profoundly grateful for the guidance and support of my supervisor throughout this process. Congratulations to all fellow winners, and heartfelt thanks to the Edcom Graduation Competition team for this prestigious recognition. Receiving acknowledgment for the efforts of the past months in this manner is incredibly gratifying and serves as a powerful motivation to continually push personal boundaries. Thank you so much!” 

Their works are available on the edcom website, where you can access the papers’ summaries and posters.

For further information on the Graduation Competition and/or the edcom institute, please contact Francesco Bottegal, Project Officer at francesco.bottegal@eaca.eu. 

About edcom 

edcom (The European Institute for Commercial Communications Education) strives to promote excellence in commercial communications education and research. Its aim is to establish cooperation between academia and industry professionals, as well as facilitate cross-border education and exchange of students. edcom is comprised of 43 university members across 14 countries, that meet bi-annually to share the best practices during members’ meetings and networking dinners. edcom also organizes competitions for students, such as Ad Venture and Graduation Competition. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

#WeAreEdcom

On 4 December, the edcom network met in Brussels at the Erasmushogeschool for the second annual Members’ Meeting. We worked together to further develop and implement the current 4Cs Programme, we shared updates on current and new initiatives and and fostered connections while exchanging ideas on how to create more value for our membership.

President Gilles Nakhle opened the meeting with a quick review of his programme to then delve into specific action points developed together with the board.

Challenge

“Encouraging our students to compete, exchange ideas, and showcase their talents and creativity is at the core of our initiative. This effort is driven by the overarching goal of engaging the younger generation and cultivating a community of advocates, targeting all the talents from European universities”. This is how Gilles Nakhle introduced the first Challenge to then moved on to present potential projects to challenge even further the edcom students.
One of the main proposals for the future is to capitalize on the success of the edcom flagship competition, Ad Venture, and provide other opportunities for our students to live real-life working experiences, focusing more on creativity.
Another initiative that aroused the interest of many in the room is the edcom x TedX proposal. In a nutshell, Gilles presented the idea of empowering the students to organise an event around a topic of their choice. The idea would be to support them in a project that is entirely led by the students, from conception to realisation.

Collect

Kirstie Riedl from Fachhochschule shared with the network a few ideas on how to build on and capitalise on the outstanding research capabilities of the edcom network. At edcom, we have great researchers and an important wealth of knowledge in marketing and communications. The Collect Workstream Team’s proposal is to collect and curate the great content coming from our members, and to use it to engage with a business audience through channels and tools such as podcasts, LinkedIn articles, Videos and much more. There are already several research topics on which the members are working on:
AI, digital commerce, Social Media and Digital well-being, Sustainability, etc.
Building on the current edcom expertise to produce relevant content for the business and agency world is the first step to placing edcom as the missing link between academia and the industry.

Collaborate

Gilles Nakhle presented some of the early thoughts developed by Gresi Sange, Nişantaşı University, Turkey, and Richard Robinson, from Xeim Engage and Oystercatchers, on the Collaborate workstream. The ultimate goal is to create greater awareness for com as an entity, including our thought leadership, academic excellence, future industry talent and up-to-minute genZ insights.
A few concrete examples of collaboration might be:
Working with membership-based organisations focused on digital, marketing and other creative organisations like The Marketing Society;
Collaborate with local organisations of note that are non-member organisations that have large reach and influence. The Cannes Festival of Advertising, the Marketing Week, can be an interesting options to explore;
Working with Businesses and Brands who can benefit from com uniqueness (research expertise, access to GenZ and talents, etc.). An example can be working with Unilever.

Connect

Gilles quickly expanded on the Connect Workstream. The objective of this stream is to develop an integrated communication strategy to better communicate about the network, improve our visibility online and connect the members. to create engagement among this latter and their talents. With a multi-level target, we want to reach our members, new potential members, and our student communities and talents.

Members’ Presentations

During the second part of the meeting, members had the opportunity to share with the network some of the initiatives organised at their respective universities.

The Bureau, Erasmus Hogeschool Brussels

Presented by Didier Van Ghyseghe from the hosting school, the Bureau programme is a collaborative project. It involves students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year to work on a brief provided by an actual organisation, comparable to a pitch situation. All the students are coached by a lecturer and the whole project has been devised to be a part of the teaching module. Do you want to know more about the programme the Bureau? Access here the full presentation.

Creative+, Panteion University, Athens

Our colleague Betty Tsakarestou, from the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, presented an outstanding initiative taking place at her university aimed at empowering students, providing them with resources, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them bring their ideas to life. Creative +  is a collaborative space where students, researchers and the entire active academic community of Panteion University cultivate the culture of entrepreneurship and innovation and the development of cutting-edge business, digital and soft skills. Do you want to know more? Access the C+ presentation here.

Advertising Career Talks

Our colleague Dr Hyunsun Yoon, a professor at the University of Greenwich, put together a comprehensive overview of marketing and advertising competitions in Europe. Are you looking for new challenges for you and your students? This presentation is for you. Check out now the full deck!

Our next Meeting is tacking place in London, hosted by our member London College of Communication, part of the London School of Arts. We are gathering together on the 25&26 April to elect our new Board and President, to attend the final pitch of the 2024 Ad Venture competition organised in partnership with Lipton and much more.

The European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (edcom) is hosting its 10th Annual Bachelor and Master Graduate Competition. The purpose of this competition is to celebrate and reward the best Bachelor and Master Graduation report, dissertation, thesis or essay produced by students from edcom member schools.

The edcom Research Committee will assess the academic works in two judging rounds based on their research, relevance, novelty and scale. The winners will be announced in November 2023, each receiving a €400 euros cash prize, an edcom Certificate, publication of their entry summary on the edcom website and the possibility to be published in a European advertising journal or magazine.. This year, the winners can choose an alternative prize: a trip to Brussels for the edcom meeting and the Effie Europe Forum & Awards Gala on 4 & 5 December.

Interested students should contact their edcom coordinator and send their abstract by 30 October 2023 to Francesco at francesco.bottegal@eaca.eu. You can find more details about the competition and requirements here.