UPDATED: Romania wins Grand Prix for PR and trophies in other categories at Eurobest 2013

Newsroom Creativity, Festivals & Awards

(includes statements from some of the Romanian winners at Eurobest)

“Why don’t you Come Over?” (WDYCO) campaign just won the Grand Prix for PR. The campaign created by GMP Advertising Bucharest for Gandul.info (Mediafax Group) was launched in response to the British anti-immigration campaign called “Don’t come to England”, an initiative of the British Government, trough The Guardian publication.

The campaign had zero media budget and generated Euro 2M worth of worldwide earned media, 87M media impressions, from which 5.1M only in Romania.

Gandul.info improved it’s readership with 30% while the Facebook page engagement was boosted by 37%. Also the social network buzz around the paper improved with 137%.

Webstyler was the developper for the online platform of the advertising campaign.

The campaign also won a Gold Award at AdStars, one of Asia’s biggest advertising awards festivals, and many accolades in Romanian competitions. Some of the team members that developed the campaign are Mihai Gongu – Creative Director, Alina Zaharescu – Senior Art Director, Catrinel Manolescu and Simona Firtat – Account Directors. Nine years ago, Mihai Gongu was the first Romanian Young Lion at Cannes Lions.

It is to be mention that the entire campaign was privately funded and did not had connections with any political or governmental institution in Romania or elsewhere.

You can find the campaign here: http://whydontyoucomeover.gandul.info/

It’s an honor for us to scoop Grand Prix at Eurobest in PR category for an integrated campaign for which different competencies of GMP Group worked together. More than that, we are happy that positive news about Romania don’t stop being written, that people that, on another hand, want Romanians out of their countries, find out about our campaign and see also another face of Romanians. Each international prize that WDYCO brought back in the country means a new occasion to talk, at international level, about the campaign and its message. International festivals’ juries that awarded the campaign, communicators that participate to awards galas, international press that wrote about each and every competition, they could all be the target of the campaign. And the attention given to this, recognition of creativity and innovation in PR and online communication for WDYCO come back as benefits for Romania, not just for GMP Group and Mediafax Group

Felix Tataru,

President GMP Group

Besides Gandul campaign, Romania also got quite a few other accolades at Eurobest this year, namely:

  • Silver – Interactive – McCann Erickson Bucharest – Digital Library Vodafone.
  • Bronze – FMCG category on Direct Shortlist – “Bucharest, not Budapest”, McCann Erickson Bucharest
  • Gold – Media – McCann Erickson Bucharest  – Digital Library Vodafone
  • Silver – Craft: Print & Poster – Graffiti BBDO for each of the executions “Man” & “Woman”.
  • Bronze – Print – Grafiti BBDO – Capital, for each of the executions “Man” & “Woman”.

McCann Erickson Bucharest added the prizes to the portfolio after it also scooped 3 prizes in the summer at Cannes Lions.

We are happy we won with 2 innovative campaigns, that had an impact over society and that continue to evolve, to live. Digital Library from Vodafone just entered over 300 high-schools all over Romania and it’s on its way to transform into an interior design product, a real first: a tapestry with the digital library.

Also, Bucharest not Budapest campaign is still gaining attraction from international press and we help foreigners from all over the place to get rid of the confusion

Catalin Dobre,

Executive Creative Director McCann Bucharest

Related to the winning Romanian works and agencies, Teo Migdalovici, Cannes Lions and Eurobest ambassador in Romania, commented:

I want to congratulate all the winners and, at personal level, the fact that the first Romanian Young Lion wins again, at nine years since Cannes, a Grand Prix at Eurobest is a great professional compliment and a confirmation that, on long term, all projects dedicated to Romanian young creatives return to the industry all the energy invested

The Grand Prix winners at Eurobest 2013 were:

  • Branded Content & Entertainment: Forsman & Bodenfors Sweden –  ‘Live Test’, Volvo Lastvagnar / Volvo Trucks
  • Craft- Film: Being Boulogne Billancourt – ‘The Lover’, Come4
  • Craft – Print & Poster: Herezie Paris – ‘All Day Long’, Barilla
  • Design: Serviceplan Munich, Germany, ‘The Selfscan Report’, Auchan
  • Direct: TBWA\Belgium, ‘The Gap in the Market’, KBC
  • Film: & Co. Copenhagen, Denmark, ‘Making the Cut’, ‘Sewing it Up’, Jack & Jones
  • Integrated: Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, Sweden, ‘Swedens Largest Energy Experiment’, E.ON
  • Interactive: Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, Sweden, ‘The Chase 360’, Volvo Lastvagnar / Volvo Trucks
  • Media: Buzzman Paris, France, ‘Milka Last Square’, Mondelez International
  • Mobile: TBWA\Helsinki, ‘Adidas Window Shopping’, Adidas
  • Outdoor: Wien Nord Vienna, Austria, ‘The Opel Sky – Surprise’, Opel General Motors Austria
  • Print: Ogilvy & Mather London, United Kingdom, ‘Wish Ewe Wre Ere’, Gry Sky’, Arm Leg’, Mum Dad IOU’, ‘Sun Sea Snd Sex’, Yoo Wat’, Expedia
  • Promo & Activation: SMFB Oslo, Norway, ‘7 Days of Rain’, Geox RADIO Serviceplan Munich, Germany, ‘BMW Siri’, BMW

When it comes of special awards,  Network of the Year was DDB, with  BBDO and Publicis ranking 2nd and 3rd,  the Independent Agency of the Year went to Heimat Berlin, with  Serviceplan Munich and Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg ranking next. Serviceplan also scooped Agency of the Year award, a title for which it fought with Heimat Berlin and DDB Paris.

The Interactive Agency of the Year title went to Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, with SMFB Oslo and Try/Apt Advertising Agency Oslo being next ranked. Eurobest Palm Award  went to Bacon Frederiksberg, that won over Henry de Czar Paris and Blink Productions London, while Advertiser of the Year went to Canal+.

Launched in 1988, Eurobest is Europe’s leading annual awards competition for creative excellence in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Craft, Interactive, Media, Direct, Promo & Activation, Design, PR, Integrated, Mobile and Branded Content & Entertainment advertising. Since 2008, the awards, which are judged by Europe’s top creatives, form part of a two-and-a-half day Festival themed to identify and engage specific topics that are relevant to the European market. The festival, attended by more than 1,900 delegates in 2012, has previously been held in Stockholm, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Lisbon.  Eurobest is organised by Lions Festivals.

Material written by Lucian Talpes