Working on real projects is one of the critical activities for all Brainster Bootcamps. It aims to prioritize the learning process by solving real-life problems. This activity is of mutual benefit for our student’s experience and the companies that need innovative solutions for their projects.
The process of concluding a partnership is facilitated through the new platform for co-innovation and hiring as a quick and easy way to apply for interested companies.
In the area of innovation, companies or organizations have the opportunity to apply an idea and get teams of talented students who, with the support of experienced mentors, will turn that idea into an innovative solution ready to use.
These partnerships strengthen and enhance the networking between companies and talented young people at the beginning of their careers. In addition, they break the traditional barrier and expose new brands to new markets through fresh and innovative ideas.
Regardless of the industry, talented students continuously manage to provide innovation to clients’ companies. These collaborations are sometimes the product of mutual communication and work between multiple academies, as is the case here.
In this blog post, we introduce our co-innovation partner – The Locals.
The Locals is the largest BTL marketing agency in Bulgaria that works with local and international brands such as Coca-Cola, Costa Cafe, Jägermeister, and others.
The students from the Data Science Bootcamp worked hard last month for a client who is well known to all of you, and that is Jägermeister.
In this interview, we talked with Joco Todorovski about the co-innovation partnership with Brainster
Hello Joco, what would you share about yourself and your job position?
Hello! My name is Joco Todorovski. I am the best father and husband in the world (this is true because it says so on my coffee cup).
Professionally, I am an entrepreneur, digital marketing strategist, and investor. We have this conversation because I am currently a partner in Bulgaria’s largest BTL marketing agency – The Locals.
We have been developing a digital marketing department for a year and a half. The agency works with local and international brands: Coca-Cola, Costa Cafe, Jägermeister, and other brands in the portfolio of Coca-Cola, HBC Bulgaria, Rolex, Volkswagen, Kamenitza, Sobranie, Wella, etc. Our work in the digital industry was recently awarded the Gold Effie Award for a successful national campaign for the Jägermeister brand.
What does a working day look like in such a big company?
Currently, as the person in charge of the company’s digital department, my responsibilities are divided into: Work “in” business until 12 o’clock: Status reviews of projects in the morning and meetings with the team and clients; Work on the business until 4 PM: Creating new processes, optimizing existing processes, and recruiting new associates/partners or clients; I am currently stationed in Amsterdam, and all the work is done online.
Who are the biggest clients you have worked with so far?
Coca-Cola with its portfolio of soft and alcoholic beverages.
How did you decide to contact us for a co-innovation partnership?
The contact was made by chance with Peter. We have known each other for a long time and talked occasionally. That’s how I found out about your co-innovation program. When he explained how it works, I immediately knew that this was something we could collaborate on.
What would you tell us about the project you collaborated on with Brainster?
In the past, we ran specific campaigns for customers who buy a particular product offline (from markets and stores) intending to “bring” them online and reward their activity. As part of the mechanism for this is attaching a fiscal note showing the purchase of that product. The specific client/brand for which we developed this solution is Jägermeister. The solution and the project are software solutions that enable the attachment of a fiscal note, verification of reliability, and extraction of information from the fiscal note. Checking and verifying these fiscal notes has been a laborious and expensive process for us so far. We wanted to automate this and shared this goal with Brainster’s team.
With which Brainster Bootcamps did you cooperate? Are you satisfied with the overall communication with the students and the mentors?
The collaboration was with the Data Science Bootcamp. The whole communication and cooperation were relatively “smooth.” I would especially like to express my gratitude for the patience and flexibility of your team.
How satisfied are you with the created product, and would you entrust our students with another big project or a complicated task?
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by a few things:
- How seriously and all involved parties received the project responsibly;
- I did not expect so many people to get involved;
- I did not expect that the final presentation would present 4-5 solutions instead of one. What the mentors have done is to divide people and let everyone work on a separate solution;
- I did not expect that Data Science guys to create a solution that “holds water” would go beyond the curriculum they have and explore, test, and use advanced techniques.
As a person who lives in the digital world every day, I can’t wait to see what we can do together next.
Finally, what do you have to say about the Brainster co-innovation partnership, and would you recommend this service to your co-workers?
I want to thank and congratulate the entire Brainster team for what you are doing in Macedonia and how far you have come at the moment. The idea of co-innovation is definitely something that every company in Macedonia should perceive as an opportunity for “research and development” of ideas in their sector. We are facing years in which the real and virtual worlds will be connected even more socially, economically, and industrially. If a company wants to adapt and grow, it will need intelligent young people who think “outside the box.”
If you are still wondering why you should become a Brainster co-innovation partner, visit the co-innovation & hiring platform and see for yourself!
Be part of the future of work through Brainster’s innovation platform!
Do you need talented staff for your company? Hire a student via our platform.
