First-Ever Indonesian Win at Young Stars MAD STARS: UI Students Secure Silver Award in South Korea

Busan, South Korea – A new milestone has been achieved at the international creative festival MAD STARS 2025. For the first time, a team of Indonesian university students — Sayid Muhammad Usammah Alhabsyie (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia) and Aeriell Handjaja (BINUS University) — has won in the Young Stars category, a prestigious global competition for university students in the creative industry.

MAD STARS is a world-class creative festival that integrates innovation across marketing, advertising, and digital content. It serves as one of the largest platforms to showcase ideas, creativity, and cutting-edge technology in the global advertising and communications industry. With its core value of “Humanity,” MAD STARS strives to present creative solutions that create meaningful social impact. One of its signature programs, Young Stars, is designed for university students from around the world to develop innovative and purposeful campaign ideas.

The Young Stars MAD Competition 2025 began with an online portfolio submission stage. Participants submitted their best creative works produced during their university years, which were later reviewed and selected by an international panel of judges. Teams that passed this selection were invited to Busan, South Korea, from August 26–29, 2025, to take part in the on-site final round. In the final, each team was given 30 hours to craft a creative campaign idea based on a theme announced on the spot.

This year’s challenge addressed the dangers of e-cigarette or vaping use, along with an additional requirement: to collaborate with artificial intelligence (AI)—often perceived as a “rival” among creative designers. Within the tight time frame, Sayid and Aeriell impressed the judges with their campaign concept titled “The Deathfluencer.” The idea stemmed from a reflective question: “What if the first victim of e-cigarettes could come back to life?”

Through AI collaboration, the team “revived” the persona of the first vaping victim to illustrate the lost potential and beauty of a life cut short by e-cigarettes. The campaign delivers a clear message: e-cigarettes are not a lifestyle trend, but a real danger that can rob young people of their future. This bold and thought-provoking idea earned the Indonesian team a Silver Award, outperforming dozens of finalists from around the world — marking the first-ever Indonesian victory at the Young Stars MAD STARS competition.

Beyond the competition, finalists also had the opportunity to connect with hundreds of young creators and leading professionals from the international creative industry. The event featured more than 350 professional judges from around 70 countries, including Livio Grossi (Dentsu Redder), Geumbyul “Very” Bae (INNOCEAN), Pannarai Juanroong (Ogilvy Thailand), Sandipan Bhattacharyya (MONKS), Takeshi Tsuji (ADK Marketing Solutions Inc.), and Tres Colacion (Droga5).

For Sayid, the experience was especially meaningful. He had the rare opportunity to speak directly with Tres Colacion, one of his long-time creative role models. “Having a conversation with someone I’ve admired for years not only broadened my perspective on the global creative industry, but also gave me strong motivation to keep moving forward,” Sayid shared. “Tres even outlined the practical steps I could take to achieve my goals in this field, and ended our talk by saying, ‘You’ll be fine in the creative industry.’ That was truly an unforgettable momen

Sayid’s achievement did not come easily. His experience from various university projects in Communication Studies at FISIP UI and numerous national competitions helped him sharpen his skills in creative problem-solving, marketing strategy, and visual storytelling. Behind his success lies deep passion and unwavering dedication to the creative world. Sayid is known for his genuine love for the industry—seeing it not merely as a career path, but as a space to express ideas, ideals, and social impact. His passion for the creative process has become the driving force that allows him to thrive and persist.

“Creative ideas are difficult to produce,” he said, “but that’s what makes them exciting—because not everyone can do it.”

Sayid believes that success requires ambition paired with purposeful consistency. “Good things happen when you have a delusional level of ambition. Having a ‘crazy’ dream pushes you to go further than you thought possible,” he explained.

He added that consistency plays a crucial role in turning big dreams into reality. “You should find out as early as possible what you truly want to achieve,” he advised. “Consistency only comes when you know where you want to go and how much you want to get there. Find your way, then you’ll find how you can go there.”

The victory of Sayid and Aeriell marks a historic milestone for Indonesia at the Young Stars MAD STARS competition. Their success not only brings pride to their respective universities but also demonstrates that Indonesian students possess the creativity, competitiveness, and capability to excel on the global creative stage.

Congratulations to Aeriell Handjaja and Sayid Muhammad on this remarkable achievement! May their success serve as an inspiration for students everywhere to keep creating, innovating, and using creativity as a force to shine on the global stage.