Nova SBE duo wins gold at the Young Lions Portugal

victory, announced this Tuesday, opens the doors for the duo to represent Portugal in the Marketing category of the Young Lions international competition, part of the Cannes Lions international creativity festival.

For Francisco Santos, who attended the Post-graduate course in Applied Management and began his career at Nova SBE, this is also an achievement for the education sector, "which is not exactly considered sexy or creative", which is why it is important to "demystify the idea of what is a brand that can be considered institutional, and yet can develop talent in the area of creativity and good professionals, capable of delivering projects 'outside the box'".

"Mariana and I used to work together and we wanted to challenge that stigma a bit. The idea was really to participate, without any prospect that we might be called. And, as Nova staff, we applied [to the shortlisting stage] only with projects that we did for Nova Executive Education", she explained, adding that the national selection stage was "a very big challenge, in 48 hours, to understand everything about a brand, its competitors, the benchmark, and what proposal to deliver to add value to the client", but they did not let themselves be clouded by the nerves of this first participation in the competition.

For Mariana Coimbra, currently Head of Marketing at ERA Imobiliária, having also belonged to the Marketing and Communication team at Nova SBE Executive Education for five years, the day of the victory was full of "strong emotions". The quality of the competition, with participants from sectors "that could be more disruptive in this context", with more experience and participations in past editions, gave even more value to the medal.

"We were always aware that we were doing a good job and that we had great results, but this is a sector that is not as recognised as an employer. And to be able to win against companies that are considered the biggest marketing schools in Portugal is a great achievement!”.

This phase of the competition is used to determine the winners of each country in seven creative categories. The seven first-placed pairs in each area will then have to complete a new communications challenge at the Cannes Lions festival. This final phase will be even more demanding, since instead of 48 hours to present a solution, the teams will have only one day.

The greater demand, however, does not detract from the goal, nor does it place greater pressure, guarantees the duo of representatives of Nova SBE Executive Education.

"The expectation is not to win. More than that, it is to make a good representation and be confident of the project we will deliver in Cannes."