This year’s New Establishment: Innovators pursued bold goals – many of which paid off with big results – and bucked the status quo by doing things differently.

The New Establishment initiative was first unveiled in 2017 as a program to recognize junior and mid-level media professionals rising through the ranks and making a mark at their respective agencies. The program now extends past media to brands and beyond, succeeding Marketing’s 30 Under 30, without the restrictions of an upper age limit.

Nominees are people who built new things from the ground up or had the courage to buck the status quo and try things differently.

This year’s pair of winners represent innovative thinking on both the brand and agency side.

Molson Coors’ Jessica Vieira Teixeira pushed for PR to have a bigger seat at the brewer’s table, resulting in a massive bump in its PR investment and finding new ways to get brands in front of consumers in a time of declining sales for the category.

A former med student and current business owner, Michael Romaniuk found an unconventional way to get the attention of Zulu Alpha Kilo founder Zak Mroueh, and has delivered award-winning art direction for the agency on some of its biggest clients ever since.

Read more about the winners below, and keep an eye out for calls for submission for other New Establishment categories in the near future.

Jessica Vieira Teixeira: Expanding PR’s portfolio
Michael Romaniuk: From MD to AD