For 25 years now, the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations has been a fundamental part of the educational landscape of Catalonia. As Dr. Salvador Pié, president of the Blanquerna Foundation said, “the School has had the great advantage of having two fundamental people convinced that communication is decisive, Dr. Miquel Tresserras, first dean and key figure in creating an environment of relevance and, the current dean, Dr. Josep Maria Carbonell, who has brought about the most international vision that this School has ever lived."

The recognition of a critical and nonconformist jury

The dean, who presided over the event, recalled that the Best Communicator of the Year Award was an initiative of the first class of students "who decided to organize these conferences to recognize the talent of the communication mentors of each year." The 2020 award was given to the campaign "Mediterraneamente" and its two parts: "Alma" and "Amantes", by Estrella Damm, an environmentally conscious campaign that incorporates the Sustainable Development Goals into its strategy.

The director of the Degree in Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing, Dr. Josep Rom, quoted the poet Paul Valéry, to remind us that "in every piece of work there are different elements, desire, action, idea and matter." In the case of the ad, Rom said, there is a “desire to share the purpose of the brand; an action, to protect the sea, and an idea: that we can still recover the Mediterranean sea, and a subject: the audiovisual part."

The director of Communication and External Relations of Damm, Fede Segarra, gave thanks for the recognition and reminded the audience that "sustainability is part of the DNA of the brand" and, that in 1999 Damm was the first company to receive the certificate of environmental commitment.

This time, in its spots, the brand left behind the lifestyle that had accompanied them for a decade, to introduce a new concept: "A less superficial and more emotional challenge", as Segarra described the work of the creative responsible for the project, Oriol Villar. "The response of the public has been exceptional, and this award demonstrates it because it is the students of a School who grant us this recognition, a critical and nonconformist jury."

Quality information and content at the service of citizens

By vote of the University Leaders, the public television of Barcelona, ​​betevé, was also awarded the Blanquerna Extraordinary Prize, which this year also celebrates 25 years, and its information services for the coverage of the post-sentencing events. Its director, Sergi Vicente, acknowledged that during these 25 years many things have changed: “We no longer talk about television, now we talk about audiovisual in general, but what has not changed is this spirit that exemplifies betevé, of being at the service of the citizens".

The Barcelona channel accumulates more than 220 million hours of broadcasts and 250 programmes, as recalled by the presenter of the Midday Informative, Sandra Mestres, and former student of the 11th year graduating class: “One of the issues in which betevé excels at is stepping out on the street and showing it as it is,” said Mestres. “The information services have always done it and they’ve shown it again with the coverage of the post-sentencing protests. Because from the first moment it was very clear what we should do: betevé wanted to be, and succeeded in being, the eyes of what happened in the city over those days.”

Long live the Alumni Ambassadors

In addition to everything else, this year, the School celebrated the first edition of the Alumni Ambassadors Awards, a recognition of the professional career of four former students of our School: Sara Canals (Journalism 15th class), presenter of LaLigaTV and collaborator of the BBC and CNN ; Tomás Ferrándiz (Advertising and Public Relations, 1st class), executive creative director of Tiempo BBDO; Álex Lafuente (Audiovisual Communication, 5th class) and Pat Rubio (International Relations, 1st class), Program Lead a Refugee Rescue UK.

Canals and Ferrándiz, representing the four, wanted to remember that "the School taught us to ask appropriate questions, to encourage critical spirit and manage spaces for reflection and debate. Today we are where we are because we have been through Blanquerna."