During the week of 4 th July 2016, over 60 advertising & commercial communications students and young professionals from 15 countries took part in the 7 th edition of the EACA International Advertising Summer School at edcom member Design Akademie Berlin in Germany.
The participants attended two workshops a day while being challenged to create a campaign in international multidisciplinary teams for this year’s client Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies.
University students took part in the Foundation Programme, where they were trained in the main disciplines of advertising, such as strategic planning, the future of digital creativity, interactive video and mobile advertising, presentation skills, and understanding the relationship between agencies and clients. Young professionals participated in the Advanced Programme, which focused on workshops such as effective communication, applying behavioural economics to brands, connecting your content to an audience and a digital boot camp.
Inspired by these workshops delivered by leading industry professionals, the participants created a campaign in response to a brief they received from the client in co-operation with creative agency DDB Berlin. The challenge was to increase brand preference and brand advocacy by creating an emotional relationship with consumers that goes far beyond rational matters like products and prices.
The jury consisted of Tamas Kovacs (Marketing Communications Expert, Deutsche Telekom), Matthias Rech (Senior Planner, DDB Berlin), Ralf Nöcker (Director General, GWA), Dörte SchultzeSeehof (Rectrice of Design Akademie Berlin), Micky Denehy (Principal, EACA International School of Advertising and Communications) and Dominic Lyle (Director General, EACA).
The winning Foundation team ‘Columbus Creative’ impressed the jury with their campaign #europeisforsharing. Being millennials themselves from all over Europe and beyond, the team focused on the strengths of a united Europe instead of having barriers between countries. Next to a strong creative idea, the campaign also laid out a well-developed strategy which combined both traditional and innovative advertising and marketing techniques. When interviewed about their experiences, the team commented that: “It was such a great experience and we made really good friends here. It helped that we were split into multidisciplinary teams from different backgrounds because it inspired us to come up with the creative idea of our campaign that Europe is for sharing.”
The winning Advanced team ‘The Fab Four’ had an impressive campaign called #sharelifessimpletruths which carried a powerful message. The idea behind the campaign is that millennials should share true moments in life, even if they don’t look great on social media. The winning team said: “We’re very proud of ourselves, we had an amazing week and we made some great friends in the process. The summer school was 100% relevant for our day to day jobs, so it truly was an amazing experience.”
All teams impressed the judging panel with their creative ideas, their vitality when delivering the pitches and their passion for the advertising industry in general. According to Micky Denehy, Principal of the EACA International School of Advertising and Communications, the jury was very impressed with the energy of the participants and the quality of the presentations given the short amount of time that they had to work on the brief. “The Foundation teams just blew us away with how they went for it and the Advanced teams really thought through the problems that needed solving, they were just fantastic presentations”, he commented.
Matthias Rech, Senior Planner at DDB Berlin said: “It’s always inspiring to see how young people deal with the challenges we face every day and it was fantastic to be overwhelmed with the new, fresh and unexpected ideas the teams came up with. Working in the advertising industry, we realise it is crucial to retain the potential that we have witnessed here today.” Tamas Kovacs, Marketing Communications Expert at Deutsche Telekom, added: “We’ll definitely take back some of the ideas and out-of-the-box thinking that the participants have shared with us, especially considering that they came from our target audience, the millennials. The EACA International Advertising Summer School has truly been a wonderful experience and an opportunity to gain new insights, and that’s why Deutsche Telekom is very keen to show its support.”
Ralf Nöcker, Director of GWA (Gesamtverband Kommunikationsagenturen), noted that: “The industry needs people like these students and young professionals whose great work we have witnessed today. All participants showed so much enthusiasm and passion. Moreover, they demonstrated that they were able not only to think of brilliant ideas, but most importantly, they were able to sell them to us.”
EACA Director General, Dominic Lyle, summarised: “I think this is one of the best summer schools we have had in terms of the commitment of people and the level of excitement and fun that the participants had. One of the great things about the summer school is that it brings people together from different countries and cultures and that they learn how to work together as teams”.
The next EACA International Summer School will take place at the beginning of July 2017.
