Round 1 Jury
LEGO REPRESENTATIVES
Charlotte Rubesa, Global Communications Strategy, LEGO
Charlotte is a Canadian-born, Belgian-raised, Croatian/Dutch-blooded Global Communications Strategist currently working at the LEGO Agency in London where she works on global go-to-market strategies for a variety of LEGO franchises and ideas. She came to the LEGO Group after starting her career at 72andSunny in Amsterdam for 4 years working with brands including Axe / Lynx, Klarna and Uber Eats. Before that, she studied digital innovation at Hyper Island and has participated in the Cannes Lions summer academy for students in 2016 and in 2017.
Charlotte also believes in making the creative industry more accessible and more fair for young people and underrepresented groups. In the past she has run a peer-to-peer mentorship programme for She Says in Amsterdam and now in her spare time works as Product Marketing Director at Ok Mentor, where with her team she is bringing 1:1 mentorship to women at scale, imagining where we would be if all women shared their knowledge with the next generation.
She is most excited by work where the creative idea and the media solutions work together seamlessly to tell a meaningful story.
Heidi Rathschau Nielsen, Senior Art Director, Concept and Campaign Development, LEGO
I have over 20 years of experience in design and advertising. Latest, I have been part of the LEGO© Agency. I lead and work on global 360° campaigns from a strategic perspective to concepts and campaign development for the LEGO© Brand and various sub-brands. I have a background as an art student but quickly ended up in the advertising industry. However, I am still inspired by the art world's provocations and cultural diversity. Lately, I have been exploring AI bots and being inspired by digital development.
I look forward to seeing all the submissions. My focus will be on playful, relevant and eye-catching ideas for kids.
By sharing my childhood photo, I want to bring out a smile and remind all of us of the importance of keeping our inner child alive and continuing to play.
Tobias Prag, Global Creative Specialist, LEGO
AGENCY REPRESENTATIVES
Alvaro Alés, Marketing and Communications Director, MIGUEL MERINO DISTRIBUCIONES SL, Spain
More than 25 years of experience in the Marketing & Communications industry.
He has worked as a marketeer at some of the best-known wine & spirits companies such as Diageo in London or Pernod Ricard in Spain. After a short move to the telecoms industry, working as Marketing Vice-President for Telefonica B2B, he became the Marketing & Communications Director of a well-known winery in Spain, Grupo Caballero. Recent experience in this industry includes 5 years in Bodegas Babarbadillo as Marketing and Communications Director, with an Interim Management contract.
In 2004 he jumped to the agency side and founded Lateral Marketing & Communications. In 2007 he moved to Seville and founded my current company 360º Marketing & Communications. Shortly after he joined Havas Group forming Arena 360º. After a journey of 8 years offering full marketing services with a focus on media planning and buying, in 2014 the company 360º became independent again. He then founded Gastropass an agency specialized in Food Tourism that also holds the Official License for the wines of the local Football Club: Real Betis Balompié. These companies now work under the name Grupo 360º.
He represents Spain as a member of the Board of the IMPACT Council, former IMCC where he was Chairman during the period 2010-2012. In 2023 he began Chairing the IMPACTS European Awards. The IMPACT Council represents Integrated Marketing Associations from several European countries and is part of the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA)
Awie Erasmus, Global Planning Director & Chief Strategy Officer, Ogilvy Social.Lab
Awie Erasmus is the Global Planning Director & Chief Strategy Officer for Ogilvy Social.Lab, based in the Brussels HQ. Awie first joined Ogilvy in London during 2007, before moving to Ogilvy Cape Town where he filled numerous roles across Ogilvy’s advertising, digital, social and PR businesses, spanning a full decade. In 2018, Awie moved to Brussels to join Ogilvy Social.Lab where he leads a dynamic team of planners working across a diverse portfolio of global, regional and local clients. His first love remains digital & social strategy, with a healthy appetite for creativity and innovation. Over the years, Awie has been proudly involved in many award-winning projects – both for creativity & effectiveness.
Claire Bayet , Senior Brand Strategist, BETC, France
After a business school with a dual degree in Urban Economics and Communication strategy (ESSEC), Claire started her career helping a mobility company to increase the attendance of its buses and a start-up selling spare parts of home appliances to fight against planned obsolescence. Then a friend told her "You should try to be a strategic planner at Ogilvy Paris, you’d like it”. And so she went, liked it and has been a strategic planner ever since.
After Ogilvy, she worked at Publicis Conseil and was part of the team winning a Silver Effie for France for the launch of the new “green electricity” contract for ENGIE (energy). Claire has now been a senior strategist at BETC for 5 years, working on diverse accounts from chocolate to investment funds. She has been the lead strategist on 19 new business wins, including EDF (energy, with Havas), Michelin (mobility) and the French Red Cross (NGO), and is still the global lead for Bouygues Telecom (tech) and EDF (with Havas).
As a former business school graduate, she thinks communication is meant to be transformative for the business, and as a citizen, she thinks communication has the power to change society, hopefully for the better.
Cornelia Wangel, Senior Planner, Volt, Sweden
Cornelia's been in love with planning and strategy for more than 15 years and her broad client experience makes her a problem-solving omnivore. Good old curiosity and the ambition of making a real difference have enabled a close and trusting relationship with her clients. Cornelia has therefore been a key player in big client transformations as well as in developing the best creative conditions for specific campaigns.
Gergana Ivanova, Managing Partner, The Smarts Group, Bulgaria
Gergana is a co-founder of The Smarts group – one of the largest groups of independent coummunication agencies in Bulgaria including The Smarts, Paragraph 42 PR agency, Shoot , and IQMedia . The group provides full scope of communication services to big international and local clients, amongst which are Unicredit Bulbank, IKEA, Nestle Bulgaria, Dimitar Majarov, Canon, Electrolux. Gergana’s background is in account management and strategic planning. “Creative withouth strategy is art for the art’s sake, while in communication business we need to help clients sell in an unique and repetitive way everyday”.
Gergana is a member of the board of directors of Bulgarian Public Relation Association www.bdvo.org, as well as a board member of one of the most influential business unions in Bulgaria www.womeninbusiness.bg
Jannes Boon, Brand and Campaign Strategist, Havas Lemz Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I’m Jannes, a 32 year old brand and campaign strategist at Havas Lemz Amsterdam. Since I was a child I always loved to combine creativity with curiosity. Taking deep dives into topics that interest me, from Egypteology (creating my own little museum in my bedroom) drawing & painting, building cities with Lego, to hiphop, comics, politics and arthouse movies.
I have a degree in Communication Science, with a specialization in persuasive communication. After graduation I decided to extend my degree with a post-graduation program in digital innovation at Hyper Island, a Swedish business school focused on innovation and creativity. Learning a lot on topics such as design thinking and ideation. As part of this course, I did a traineeship in strategy at Havas Lemz.
After my traineeship I worked at multiple agencies in innovation, advertising & branding. The last couple of years I worked as a freelance brand strategist and creative consultant. With a personal preference to work for clients who focus on social causes and sustainability. Last year I returned to Havas Lemz, to work on bigger clients again in a warm team who also want to make a positive impact.
Michaela Martonova, Strategy Planner, TRIAD Advertising, Slovakia
Michaela has been working in marketing for more than seven years focusing mainly on digital and brand strategy for clients from banking, insurance, real estate, FMCG and non-profit sector. She is currently working as Strategy Planner in advertising agency TRIAD Slovakia. She was awarded on EFFIE Slovakia and an EFFIE juror as well.
Oana Năstase, Senior Digital Planner, Leo Burnett Bucharest, Romania
15 years of experience in digital communication, first as a creative, then as a strategist, with multiple awards won at European and International festivals, such as Effie, Golden Drum, and Eurobest.
Now she’s part of Leo Burnett Bucharest as Senior Digital Planner, handling the communication strategy for clients such as Pepsi, Mirinda, Spotify, Pizza Hut and many other local FMCG & E-commerce.
Sergio Garcia, co-founder and partner, Jungle21, Spain
Graduated at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Sergio began his career at Banco Santander’s marketing department. After that, he started working in the intersection of culture, innovation and strategy at Leo Burnett Madrid before he joined dommo, named one of the world's leading independent agencies in 2011. There he started an in-company trends consultancy (NowTrends), co-founded a creative production company (Randm) and soon became one of the youngest members of the company's leadership team.
Now, after completing his education in the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, he leads the strategy discipline at PS21, one of Spain's hottest creative agencies according to Scopen, and has helped the agency become Agency of the Year in Premios Eficacia, the spanish effectiveness awards. He is also co-founder and partner of Jungle21, an independent creative ecosystem and PS21’s parent company.
Working for brands such as KFC, BBVA, PepsiCo, or Pernod Ricard among others, their work has been recognised for its effective creativity with several local and international awards in Cannes Lions, The One Show, Eurobest, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, El Sol, Epica, Fiap and WARC Awards. He's also a frequent strategy, trends and effectiveness speaker, professor at Miami ad School and TheAtomicGarden, and guest teacher at universities such as Universitat Ramon Llul, UFV or UC3M.
ACADEMICS
Boryana Gigova, New Bulgarian University
For Boryana marketing is not just a profession, but a favorite hobby/passion. She has over 15 years of international experience in the fields of strategic marketing, branding, business development and communications (USA, Canada, France, South America, UAE). She combines, complements, and upgrades her work experience with her education.
She graduated from the New Bulgarian University with a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in political management and public policy. Boryana obtained a PhD in branding. She is a lecturer in three departments of the New Bulgarian University and University of York, City College. Her experience - volunteering and work - combines her two favorite areas - advertising and branding.
Boryana Gigova has a successful track-record of transforming and innovating brands. In particular – developing and launching new digital brands through storytelling, gamification & influencer marketing. She is a licenced Meta and Google optimizer.
David Alder, Senior Lecturer, Bournemouth University, UK
David Alder is a Senior Lecturer in Advertising in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. His interests are largely grouped around the use of semiotics in advertising and advertising history.
Hyunsun Yoon, Senior Lecturer, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
Hyunsun obtained her PhD in Advertising and MA in Journalism from Cardiff University. Hyunsun is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Programme Leader for BA Advertising and Digital Marketing Communications and the Department Lead for Scholarship Excellence in Business Education.
Over two decades, Hyunsun has focussed on bridging the gap between academia and industry in the field of marketing communications. Her international profile has a foundation in using education to empower under-represented communities and to improve the public experience of digital communications.
While working with the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (EdCom) and the History of Advertising Trust (HAT), she uses her work to develop innovative and authentic teaching and learning practice, with students as co-creators.
Having successfully completed multiple discipline- and pedagogy-related projects, Hyunsun has taken the approach of research-informed teaching to enhance student engagement and employability. Her work has been shared both nationally and internationally through continued collaborations and public engagement via invited presentations at United Nations organisations. Hyunsun’s interests centre around marketing communications education and pedagogy, older consumers and digital communications, and pioneering forms of commercial communications.
José Martínez Sáez, Head of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising Department, CEU Cardinal Herrera University, Spain
Ph. D. in Communication (CEU Cardenal Herrera University-2008) and Professor of Creativity and Innovation. He is the Head of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising Department in the Faculty of Humanities and Communication Sciences.
As a Research Fellow has held postdoctoral research stays in the United Kingdom, in the Netherlands at the Digital World Center of Inholland University in Rotterdam and in the United States in the Michigan State University. He is the leader of a research group base on the study of creativity in the digital era.
He began his career in a creative consulting called Createle and then as Account Manager in McCann Erickson. Once in the academic field he also has a long experience as a strategic consultant for different national brands in the field of beauty, food, energy and the environment. He is member of the Board of Management of the Valencian Public Media Corporation.
Leli Bibilashvili, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Georgia, Georgia
Leli Bibilashvili holds a PhD in Mass Communications. Currently, she works as an Associate Professor and the Head of Journalism and Mass Communications Department at The University of Georgia since 2014. Leli is a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). She has multiple years of experience both in academic and practical work. Leli has published a number of publications in communications and has successfully participated in various international and local conferences and workshops such as, 21st EUPRERA Annual Congress, 10th International History of Public Relations Conference, Teachers’ Conference of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), 5th World Journalism Education Congress, EJTA Teachers’ Conference on Crisis Reporting and EJTA Annual Conference. Leli has worked as IMC Consultant for several years in the ACT Global (Research and IMC Consulting Company), bank sector and non-governmental structural units.
Luc van Dijk-Wijmenga, HU University and Windesheim University, The Netherlands
Luc van Dijk-Wijmenga (1989) is the owner of AeronAdvies, which is independent marketing consultancy agency. AeronAdvies excels when it comes to online marketing, innovation and social impact. Luc loves to work in an inspiring environment while working independently at the same time. He learns quickly and is being a valued member of any team. His specialties are: social media marketing, marketing communication and public relations. Luc holds a master degree in Communication Sciences (MSc), with a focus on effects of user generated content on brand-value.
Besides working for AeronAdvies, Luc teaches marketing courses at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and Windesheim University of applied sciences. Luc also coordinates an international graduation course with students and supervisors around the world and is involved in several Erasmus projects.
Madalina Moraru, Univesity of Bucharest, Romania
Her PhD. focused on the mythical dimension of the advertising. Further, she authorized 2 books in Romanian and over 20 articles in English, few chapters, and she took part in many international conferences (around 25 in the last 7 years). She is active by getting involved in the industry’s projects, and being invited to the most important events: Advertising Day, Fibra award,member in Romanian Effie Juries. She is mostly in charge with working with students for AdVenture and Thesis competition.
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Jo de Bruyn, University College HoGent, Belgium
A marketing communications-enthusiastic with a passion for creative and effective communications campaigns. Lecturer of Marketing at University College HOGENT in Belgium; specialized in marketing communications, with a focus on direct marketing and marketing events; Director of DM Institute, a Belgian direct marketing community with 650 subscribers, workshops, and a magazine; Founder of In Concreto, a network of marketing communications experts, providing marketing consultancy and functional expertise in direct marketing (focus on creative executions and strict budgeting) and event organisations (focus on congresses & workshops); In the first 10 years of his professional career, he worked as an account manager in Belgian advertising agencies.
Petr Král, Head of the International Business Department , Prague University, Czech Republic
Petr Král is the head of the Department of International Business at Prague University of Economics and Business since 2014. His teaching and research areas are International Marketing and International Marketing Communication. He acts as visiting scholar at various partner universities abroad (France, Austria, Latvia, China and USA).
He conducted several research and business projects in cooperation with corporate partners and NGOs, such as Škoda Auto, Pilsner Urquell, Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, 3M, Hilti, Transparency International etc.
In executive education he used to teach at the Czech Trade Export Academy and teaches in the Sport Diplomacy program which is organized in cooperation with the Czech Olympic Committee.
In the last few years, he also educates and helps cities and communities to promote the sustainable mobility and related issues.
Besides academic activities he co-ownes a consulting company that helps Czech SMEs with their expansion to neighboring Germany.
Steve Spence, Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Advertising, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Steve studied graphic design and was so talented at it that on graduating in 1981, he went straight into advertising. As a copywriter. Firstly, at Lowe & Howard-Spink, and from there to WCRS, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Scholz & Friends picking up a small cardboard box of awards along the way.
After 30 years of crafting advertising for clients as diverse as BMW, Guinness, British Telecom and L’Oreal, he took his first unsteady steps into academia on the BA (Hons) Advertising course at London College or Communication in 2011.
He’s been there ever since.
Weberova Dagmar, Comenius University, Slovakia
She is a graduate of the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava. She started her career as a scholar at the Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2000. She was Head of the Department of English Language and habilitated in Management in 2013. She has been working as Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing Communications, Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic since 2014. She is the coordinator of the International Program, a full-time Master’s degree Program in Media and Communication Studies which offers international students the opportunity to study in English. So far, she has supervised more than 30 bachelor’s theses and over 50 diploma theses.
As part of her pedagogical and research activities, she focuses on cross-cultural management, intercultural communication, international marketing, consumer behavior and globalization issues. She has been the member of the Program Board at the Malopolska University of Economics in Tarnów, Poland since 2018. In practice, she is involved in counseling on business negotiations with foreign partners and on workforce diversity in multinational companies. She is also a member of the jury in the Presentation competition, where pupils of elementary and secondary schools in District Zlin show their presentation skills. She has been a member of the Edcom organization since 2022.