Mihai Gongu from Graffiti BBDO Romania, in the TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio Jury at Eurobest

Mihai Gongu, Creative Director at Graffiti BBDO Romania, is the Romanian member of the TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio Jury at Eurobest, a jury headed by Fernando Vega-Olmos, Creative Chairman Continental Europe & Latin America JWT Global.

Mihai Gongu has a BA in Cybernetics and entered started his advertising career via a national contest held at a popular ads-related TV show that offered as a prize a junior copywriter position at Leo Burnett Bucharest.

In his 1st year of activity, he won the Campaign of the Year trophy at ADOR. Two years later, he enters Graffiti BBDO Bucharest’s team, where he was 1st deputy creative director position. Also, he was also regional creative director on Whiskas for Central and Eastern Europe. Last year, he did a six-month stint at BBDO Berlin and returned to Bucharest as Creative Director of Graffiti BBDO.

Gongu will judge the works in TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio Jury together with Marco Kalchbrenner, Creative Director Lowe GGK (Austria), Bouke Zoete, Copywriter Saatchi & Saatchi Brussels (Belgium), Thomas Hoffmann, Creative Director & Co (Denmark), Minna Lavola, Senior Creative and Partner TBWAPHS (Finland), Claire Ravut, Creative Director Australie (France), Guido Heffels, Executive Creative Director HEIMAT Berlin (Germany), Guy Eliyahu Weinberg, Vice Chairman Zarmon Goldman DDB (Israel), Luca Zamboni, Creative Director Leo Burnett Milan (Italy), Aad Kuijper, Creative Director Copy Alfred (The Netherlands), Andre Koot, Creative/Partner Shnel & Melnychuck & Forsman & Bodenfors (Norway), Asiya Malinowska, Creative Director & Partner Brain (Poland), Marcelo Lourenço, Creative Director Fuel Euro RSCG (Portugal), Alexander Kopylov, Creative Director Zavod (Russia), Camil Roca, Executive Creative Director Bassat Ogilvy (Spain), Mitte Blomqvist, Executive Creative Director Storåkers McCann (Sweden), Axel Eckstein, Creative Director Euro RSCG Zürich (Switzerland), Ergin Binyildiz, Executive Creative Director Grey Istanbul (Turkey) and George Prest, Executive Creative Director DLKW Lowe (United Kingdom).

Mihai Gongu was selected by Eurobest organizers as Romania’s representative in TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio jury out of the 3 proposals made for this position. The other two Romanian proposals for the jury were Adrian Botan – McCann and Liviu David – Next. Romania also has a representative, Hortensia Nastase – Lowe PR, in the PR jury at Eurobest 2010.

“It is a big satisfaction to gather together, on the same piece of paper, three names with resonance. In our 1st year of competition for Young Lions, we had among jurors  Adrian Botan (McCann) and Liviu David (Next), at that time online, from Australia. In the 1st team of Romanians that were entering the arena of a competition as Cannes, post local selection, and Mihai Gongu. At almost 6 years difference, Mihai is the owner of an impressive portfolio of prizes and interesting projects, that recommended him for the Creative Director position at Graffiti / BBDO. It is nice the way two generations – Botan, David on one hand, and Gongu on the other hand –  are crossing their ways in situations related to the international environment”, Teodora Migdalovici, IAF representative in Romania, said, at the moment when Romania’s proposals for the jury were announced.

Last year, Romania’s delegation at the festival had over 20 participants, from which almost half students of The Alternative School for Creative Thinking. Performant students of the school won, a few months later, Gold at Roger Hatchuel and Honourable Merit at Young Lions, in the context of Cannes Lions.

Besides the TV/Cinema, Print, Outdoor & Radio jury,  Eurobest organizers also announced the Interactive and Mobile jury and the Direct and Sales Promotion juries.

The Interactive and Mobile Jury has James Hilton, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer AKQA (United Kingdom) as jury president and includes the following members: Jonathan Detavernier, Interactive Director – Partner Famous Brussels (Belgium), Robert Larsen, Digital Creative Director Robert/Boisen & Like-minded (Denmark), Sebastien Vacherot, Chief Creative Officer Publicis Net (France), David Lindemann, Creative Director Hi-Res! Syzygy (Germany), Marcio Holanda, Art Director Ogilvy Interactive (Italy), Maarten van der Vijfeijken, Executive Creative Director LBi Lost Boys (The Netherlands), Frank Undheim, Art Director & Creative Director McCann Oslo (Norway), Pepa Rojo, Executive Creative Director The Name (Spain) and Martin Lundgren, Copywriter DDB (Sweden).

Jonathan Harries, Vice Chairman & Global Chief Creative Officer Draftfcb (USA) is the president of Direct & Sales Promotion jury. He will head a jury that includes Peter Kaimer, Creative Director Dirnberger de Felice Grüber (Austria), Dries De Wilde, Copywriter Duval Guillaume Antwerp/Modem (Belgium), Morten Hershøj, Chief Executive Officer DialoguePeople/NetPeople (Denmark), Tom Hauser, Creative Director Grabarz & Partner (Germany), Erik Laging, Senior Copywriter Eigen Fabrikaat (The Netherlands), Javier Carrasco Conesa, Executive Creative Director & Founder La Despensa (Spain), Lotta Mellgren, Creative Director ESTER (Sweden), Barbara Duerst, Managing Director OgilvyOne (Switzerland) and Caitlin Ryan, Executive Creative Director Proximity London (United Kingdom).

“With European agencies producing some of the most exciting work out there today, we have brought together a great pool of knowledge and talent to judge the culturally diverse work entered at Eurobest,” said Terry Savage, Chairman of Cannes Lions, organisers of Eurobest. “Additionally, this year’s Interactive jury will also be judging the new Mobile category, which launches this year reflecting the current spectrum of communication.”, he added.

Launched in 1988, Eurobest is Europe’s leading annual awards competition for creative excellence in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Interactive, Mobile, Media, Direct, Sales Promotion, Design, Craft, PR and Integrated advertising. The awards, which are judged by Europe’s top creatives, form part of a two-day Festival themed to identify and engage specific topics that are relevant to the European market. Launched in 2008, the Festival has been held in Stockholm and Amsterdam. Organised by the same team behind the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival and Spikes Asia, the Eurobest Advertising Festival is a purely European event.