As of now, Arina is the only Russian creative who had ever won the Cannes Gold Lion in the Press category, in 2011. She has worked in the industry for 12 years, beginning her career at Leo Burnett Moscow. While there, she worked for such clients as McDonald’s, P&G (Tide, Herbal Essences, Wella, Venus), MTS, Multon, Doshirak, Quisty, and LEGO. Throughout that time she had also received more than 150 awards at both Russian and international advertising festivals, including Cannes Lions, Golden Drum, Golden Hammer, Eurobest, Epica, ADCR, Red Apple (MIAF), Idea!, KIAF, and WHITE SQUARE.
After four years in the industry, she went to Hamburg and entered the world’s best portfolio school, Miami Ad School Europe; after graduating, she stayed to work in Europe at They Amsterdam and Duval Guillaume Brussels. With the new, priceless experience of working with foreign clients abroad (that included Vodafone, Brussels Airlines, and De Morgen), she returned to Russia and, together with her partners, founded an agency of her own – Friends Moscow – becoming both its creative and executive director. Later, she took management courses at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, and focused solely on running her agency. During its four-year stint on the market, not only the Friends Moscow agency managed to garner trust from notable clients like Google, Indesit, Kaspersky Lab, Heineken and others; it has climbed to the 3rd place in the overall rating of independent creative agencies in Russia, and also became the exclusive Russian creative partner for Droga5 New York. To date, Friends Moscow has amassed more than 80 awards at both domestic and international festivals.
Arina also created, and still curates, the MADS concepting course – which has gathered renown in the industry. MADS courses have already produced nearly 60 graduates, most of them now working at the leading agencies in Russia.