Eurobest – Behind the scenes with Mircea Pascu (Geometry Bucharest)
Mircea Pascu, the leader of Geometry Bucharest, one of the rising stars of Eastern European creativity, served recently as juror for the PR category in Eurobest. Explore his opinions on the future of our industry, the relevance of PR and the importance of “mature judging” in this exclusive interview for AdHugger.
AdHugger: 3 words that best encapsulate the judging experience at Eurobest?
Mircea Pascu: Professionalism, honesty and emotion.
AdH: In 2015, Geometry became the first Gold winner in the PR category at Cannes Lions. How do you explain the rise of PR competencies among ad agencies and the decline of the local PR companies in performances at international competitions?
M.P.: PR is not just PR anymore. In fact everything wants to pass as PR nowadays.
AdH: How would you define “mature judging”?
M.P.:This should be honest and professional. I totally agreed to keep our work on the shortlist and award others, which is something that, unfortunately, goes against the local “habits”. The rigour and the standard level at Eurobest is purely exceptional. You “only” need to live by that while judging in order to be proud of what you’ve awarded.
AdH: Which are the most relevant trends in PR, according to your experience as a judge at Eurobest?
M.P.: The two most relevant trends in PR are also valid for the entire industry: efficiency and entertainment.
AdH: Who were your fellow judges and which of them had the most interesting argumentation?
M.P.: All fellow jurors had equally interesting argumentation and the truly interesting fact is that we succeeded to align very quickly everything that was debated.
AdH: Please give some references about the Grand Prix selection.
M.P.: The Grand Prix selection was an impressive unanimous decision as it was truly groundbreaking work. I believe that it is in every jury’s hands to move our industry forward and to encourage clients to trust groundbreaking ideas.
AdH: Were there some works that you considered suitable for the podium, but they remained as shortlists?
M.P.: We awarded the biggest number of distinctions than any other jury in the history of the festival so it is my belief that all the work got exactly what it deserved.
Mircea is the Managing Director at Geometry Global Bucharest. After coordinatingmajor marketing departments for clients like L’Oreal, Henkel or Danone, he became the leader of Geometry Global Bucharest in 2012. In this capacity, he transformed the agency in a multi-awarded, first class communication entity, capable of delivering exceptional communication solutions across all platforms.
Under his influence, the agency introduced PR critical thinking and into both local and regional clients’ agendas. Recently, Geometry Global won the first Romanian Gold in PR, at Cannes Lions Festival, with the same case study that won gold in Media category at Eurobest 2014, proving that fantastic ideas are able to travel and be relevant in more than one discipline. In the past two years, the agency was highly honored at international festivals, thus turning Geometry Bucharest office as major contributor to the network’s global reputation. The “Best communication agency of the year” and “Best PR agency of the year” honors (Golden Hammer, Latvia) are other important results that acknowledge the quality of the agency’s PR skills.
Mircea regards the PR discipline as one of the leading fields of the communication industry in the future, for its ability to motivate people, change their minds as well as their hearts and eventually to be a mentality shifter, with major impact at a social scale.