For those who don’t know her, Oana Voicu is an associate professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Bucharest, the founder of the PR and marketing agency, Creative Ideas and the initiator of the CREDU education association.
Q: Oana, now, after many years in the work field, how would you describe your career?
O.V.: My professional path was not a typical one for a PR and communication graduate, I would rather say that it was guided by experiences and changes.
Q: After finishing high school you chose Public Relations and Communication, what were the reasons behind this decision?
O.V.: The way people talk, send messages, communicate and build relationships has been one of my passions since adolescence, so studying at the Faculty of Public Relations and Communication was a natural choice. I continued with studies in political marketing (Sciences PO Lyon), strategic marketing (Faculty of Marketing, ASE Bucharest) and creative education (The University of Sheffield and The University of Edinburgh).
Q: And how did your professional career start? How was your first job? Did you have a plan from the beginning?
O.V.: Regarding what I did after graduation, the jobs I had, the decisions and professional experience, I can’t say that I followed a clear plan or that I had a path with a linear hierarchical evolution. It was a more experience-driven journey. Initially I worked in the PR and marketing area, but soon I made the first change of direction and decided to explore the public sector, as PR Consultant in the Ministry of Culture for a year. It was an experience quite different from everything I had done until then, but extremely useful because I realized that I was best suited to an activity in the private sector, namely marketing and PR services. This idea materialized in the Creative Ideas agency that I set up in 2007 and which I still manage today.
Q: What is it like to coordinate a marketing and communication agency?
O.V.: It is a dynamic field, with challenges, but it is also about trust, about the relationship with people, as I have developed long-term partnerships with the clients during all these years.
Q: I read about a project of yours in the field of education, can you give us some details?
O.V.: Even if it seems that my professional story ended, it is not so. In 2011 I added another piece to my career, my first contact with education and students (Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest). And unfortunately, even if it is wonderful to be a teacher / trainer / educator / professor, the public system with its shortcomings, leaves you with a bitter taste, no matter how dedicated you are. Meeting young people, with their fears about the future, with the economic and social insecurity in which they live, made me reach the decision that I want to get involved, not only by teaching, but also through a larger program (Creative Education, project of the CREDU Association) to support as many children and students in the learning process.
Q: Tell us more about CREDU – Creative Education
O.V.: The school curriculum is unattractive, dense and outdated, and some of the teachers are overwhelmed, they do not have access to good training programs, … this is a small part of the long line of problems in Romanian education. Some parents, even if they know these things very well, they do not have the time or resources to do much. Most often and with big financial efforts, they manage to take the children to English courses or private math lessons. Many can’t even afford an extra workbook. The luckiest of them have resources for an extra recreational or creative activity – a sport, piano, dance or painting. And here comes Creative Education, to offer support for children and parents who either do not have resources or do not have access to quality education.
One of the projects of CREDU – Creative Education Association is EDPost. It is an online magazine and it is free. On EDPost, parents can access educational resources so that the child can continue their education at an optimal level.
Q: What are the resources parents would find on EDPost?
O.V.: The core concept of EDPost is that creative thinking is native to children. So the resources offered here take into account the imagination, creativity and innovation. Parents who want to support their child in the learning process or older children who are curious can find materials that help them in pursuing their passions. For EDPost, the idea was to distribute resources for the parents who are actively involved in their child’s learning process, so it is also an opportunity to strengthen the parent-child relationship and a much more valuable activity.
But EDPost is just one component of Creative Education. In addition to the educational platform, the project also has a series of other projects that we implement in schools, kindergartens and after-schools, projects that address the problems that students face today.
Q: Which are there problems that you have identified as specific to the online learning?
O.V.: When children spend long periods in front of screens, there is a risk of developing obesity. We have two programs that address the issue of nutrition in children and the unhealthy habit of eating in front of the screen. In these meetings or workshops, the moderators give the children, through play, information about different foods, why it is good to eat fruit instead of sweets or how bad it is to eat a snack every break they take. The effects of unhealthy eating behaviors are explained. Everything is done through play and the information is adapted to the age categories, because in a way we talk to kindergarten children and in another way to high school students. As these workshops would not reach all the schools in the country, we have prepared materials to be distributed to schools. They will also be available on EDPost, of course. Other projects of Creative Education aim the value of work, since there is a trend of the new generation to seek immediate rewards. The objective of this program is to stimulate children’s curiosity by learning new things.
Q: Can you give us some examples of practical and useful things for children?
O.V.: We have a long list of areas that we address in #cevanou project. It is an open list, which we are constantly adapting (nutrition, sports, health, work, culture, science, ecology, finance, …). These materials are designed to determine children to answer some questions and think, for example Why recycle? How does the brain work? Why does the rainbow appear? Why are we sweating? Why do we sleep? There are also included several topics related to current events, for example, starting from recent events in Afghanistan – human rights, women’s status, freedom of expression, … Theoretically, these questions are answered in school, because, for example they learn about rainbows during geography lessons, but Creative Education suggests an alternative method, more attractive for them.
Q: But if you learn about the rainbow from Creative Education, won’t you get bored at school?
O.V.: On the contrary, Creative Education’s mission is to stimulate the appetite for knowledge. The materials of this project are designed in such a way that the child then seeks for more information about the things he is passionate about and deepens the information he already has.
Q: Which has been your biggest professional challenge in recent years?
O.V.: The biggest challenge of recent years was finding a balanced way to combine these two projects: Creative Ideas – PR and marketing agency and CREDU – Creative Education, national education project. The key elements in a common approach are education and creativity, so we redirected the agency’s services to educational marketing.
Q: What is an educational branding strategy for your customers?
O.V.: Educational marketing works the same as children’s education. Maybe that’s why I’ve managed to combine these two projects in a balanced way so far. At Creative Ideas we first analyze the product or service that our client offers, then we gather all the details, information about the product / service, technical characteristics, properties, general things about the industry or field and create a suitable form to convey these things for the audience. Then we look at the client’s company profile, what recycling policy it has, sustainability, the relationship with animals (in the sense that its products are not tested on animals – especially in the cosmetics industry), if it guarantees that work it is not made by children (for imported products). Today’s consumers are interested in these questions. And if our customer complies with some of these policies, then they must be communicated to the public, because they add value to his product. This is our role, to investigate, to put all the information in the right form for the public and to distribute it. A certain category of public no longer reacts to aggressive offers and promotions, the public wants information, but in a unique format. Just like children’s education, companies need to educate the audience to create a trust-based image.
Q: What would be a piece of advice for today’s young people and also for your clients?
OV: If I had to offer a single piece of advice suitable for today’s young people (for whom I designed CREDU – Creative Education) and also for Creative Ideas clients (for whom I outline communication and educational marketing strategies), it would be about courage and fear: without courage you can’t do new things. Fear keeps you from growing.