Anastasia Zemleanschih is an Account Manager & AI Studio Lead at Dentsu Creative Amsterdam and Dentsu Lab, and a board member of Young Dogs (Jonge Honden), the Dutch organisation connecting young creative talent with brands and agencies. Originally from Moldova, she moved to the Netherlands almost seven years ago, started as a digital producer at a creative agency while still finishing her degree, and grew into account leadership — a path she spoke about publicly at Cannes Lions 2026 on the Young Dogs network session at the Terra stage. She recorded her Boringly Effective conversation online, from Amsterdam to Bucharest.
Key ideas
- Ideas don't die from budgets; they die from distrust. "It's usually the trust. If there's no trust between agencies and brands, then probably they will not go for that crazy idea."
- Pitch the idea to the right stakeholders — or lose it. "I think majority of the time it's because you pitch them to the wrong stakeholders."
- AI amplifies the base, it doesn't replace it. "The AI part of things is always the amplifier of your own work. So you have to give a proper base and thoughts around it."
- Craft is still the lead. "The ones that will get ahead are the ones who can critically use AI to amplify their existing work and craft."
- Selling bold work means letting clients own it. The trick that saves brave ideas: "Make it look like they were the ones to come up with those ideas."
Appears on Boringly Effective
- Ideas Don't Die Because of the Budget. They Die Because Nobody Trusted Them — Episode 8 — young dogs, AI and the craft, from Amsterdam to Bucharest.
- Change my mind: Anastasia Zemleanschih and the YoungDogs hot takes at Cannes — debates and hot takes from Cannes Lions 2026.