Mihai Gongu

Mihai Gongu

Chief Creative Officer at Cheil Centrade
Bucharest, Romania

About me

True to his surname, Mihai won over 170 gongs in his 20 years career spanning several markets across two continents. His latest crop with Cheil Centrade Bucharest, the Southeast Europe Hub of Cheil Worldwide, includes an IAB Mixx Europe Grand Prix, a Gold LIA, a Gold Drum, a Gold Effie, as well as the Most Awarded Agency at Webstock Awards and in the Top FICE.

Before his current regional creative lead role for Cheil, he has helped TOMORROW Shanghai (currently Media.Monks Shanghai) win two back-to-back titles of Greater China Boutique Agency of the Year.

Prior to that, he has led GMP/Jung von Matt Bucharest to two titles of CEE Independent Agency of the Year at Golden Drum. He has also been a Global CD on MINI at Jung von Matt/Spree Berlin and helped the legendary German network win Independent Agency of the Year titles at NYF, D&AD and Cannes Lions, respectively.

He has been selected on several top global and regional juries the likes of One Show, Clio Awards, LIA, D&AD, Eurobest, ADC Annual Awards, ADC Europe, Effie Awards Europe, PHNX Awards, MAD Stars, The Cup, and KIAF. And has also been chosen as jury president at Golden Drum and WINA Awards.

Positions

Chief Creative Officer (CCO)
Bucharest, Romania
December 2023 - Present (3 months)

Chief Creative Officer Dec 2023 - Present
Executive Creative Director Aug 2019 - Dec 2023

I love creating brand stories at the speed of culture together with my teams. We gave a cheeky answer to the British Government with a campaign developed overnight, which went on to win the Eurobest Grand Prix in PR. Later on, we fought post-Brexit Referendum xenophobia with empathy and ended up on CNN. We have transformed cans into billboards to make the Instagram generation fall in love again with the world’s greatest brand. We have made UEFA change their mind. We have created an app that allowed people to co-create a brand launch for the first time. We have used tech to turn a historical landmark into a historic statement and won a Yellow Pencil in the process. We have inspired people to fight unequal pay with a quirky music video that made headlines across Germany and the world. We gave the youth a stage to express their creativity in one hundred simultaneous alternative parties across China with ABSOLUT100. We announced Samsung's epic Nightography feature for capturing content in low light with the first music album with 22 original songs dedicated to what keeps Romanian Gen Z up at night, complemented by 22 music videos shot entirely on a smartphone. We launched the most loved Czech beer in Romania with Romania's first four-legged influencer storming across primetime media and social media and making everyone learn a brand new word - "Goatiful". We created the first theatre stories starring toys from actual victims of domestic violence and we held captive, for the first time, two leading radio stations and detoured the entire content to raise awareness about the plight of women held in abusive relationships.

Other professional activities

PHNX 2022

Awards Jury Member

PHNX 2023

Awards Jury Member

PHNX 2024

Awards Jury Member

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