Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović, ekrem@www.media-marketing.com
The middle of last week (Wednesday, Thursday) I spent in Belgrade.
I started with a meeting with Marija Vićić in I&F McCann Group. We talked about BalCannes and the Golden Drum, and some things related to our regular cooperation. McCann agencies are preparing works for both BalCannes and the Golden Drum. Marija is always well informed about the regional advertising industry, so occasional exchange of information is of mutual benefit. We were joined by Rade Kričak. He is preparing for a long trip to Rio. He’s going to watch the finals of the water polo and attend a match in which Serbia will win gold. “What will you do if they don’t take the gold?” I ask. “At least I was in Rio,” Rade responds. With him, everything is always so simple.
Then followed a meeting with Srđan Šaper and Tijana Škorić. We continue our conversations started a month ago regarding the extension of our strategic partnership. I&F McCann Group continues to support the mission of Media Marketing even more intensely, trying to thus also contribute to the development of the communications industry in the Adriatic region. We talked about new models of cooperation that would enable Media Marketing more stable operations and realization of the projects that we want to implement in the coming months and next year. For us it is very important that in this we keep our complete media independence. I&F McCann Group for its members asks for nothing more than the other participants in the market of communication services can enjoy in terms of information and coverage on the MM portal. I&F McCann Group still maintains its position that, as one of the most serious companies in the communications industry in the region, they have a vested interest and responsibility in its development, and that in this sense they recognize the important role that Media Marketing plays.
After meeting with Srđan I went to lunch with Vlatko Dimovski who is responsible for the operations of I&F McCann Group’s creative agencies. The two of us always have interesting topics for discussion. Of course, they are all related to Vlatko’s or my job. We try to fill the mosaic of regional industry, to put together the dots and draw useful conclusions.
In the evening we go to the Yugoslav Film Archive for an exhibition of photographs of David Bowie. A great exhibition. I loved to listen to him and I really appreciated his rarely seen style. He was a great gentleman of the global music scene.
Vlatko started the car and took us to the Sava river. Along the way we stopped at the big Roda market because Vlatko wanted to buy something for his house. As I was thirsty, I went to the department selling water and for the first time I saw Jana Multivitamin. An excellent water. I sent a message to Iva Balent to complain why it is not available in Sarajevo. She answered from Dubrovnik that the vitamin line of Jana water is on the market for three months already, that it is selling great and that it should be in Sarajevo (when I returned, I found it in Konzum).
I parted ways with Vlatko at half past ten, and quite tired went back to Hyatt. And I still had work to do. I needed to prepare an interview with Zdenka Milanović. I took the computer from my room, went down to the lobby, ordered tea and started working.
On Thursday morning I meet with the event team of Hyatt to pass through the open issues related to the ceremony AD WOMAN OF THE YEAR, which we will organize in this hotel on 17 November. On that evening we will host 250 leaders of the regional communications industry in order to pay tribute to the most successful women of our profession. As I was preparing for this meeting, I recalled 21 December 1990, when we organized the Businessman 1990 ceremony at the Hyatt, the first selection of the most successful businessman in Yugoslavia. Back then we were the official agency of the Yugoslav government, whose Prime Minister was Ante Marković. Of course, he was the patron of the ceremony, but he could not attend. That day he had to be in Zagreb for the proclamation of the Croatian Constitution. He asked me to organize a meeting for him with the ten nominated businessmen at a dinner at the Hyatt, on the eve of the selection. So we did. He came at 18.30. The atmosphere was great. He wanted to hear what business leaders think about economic reforms, and they wanted to hear from the Prime Minister what the Government was planning to do with the reforms. Around 20.30 he apologized for having to briefly leave for the celebration of the Day of the Army at the JNA Home, so the generals wouldn’t take it against him. They already had too many complaints against him. He came back after an hour and stayed with us until midnight. Then the chief of protocol told him that Surčin airport is closing for flights, and if they don’t take off in 20 minutes they would have to wait for the morning. He was very sad to leave. As I accompanied him toward the exit of the hotel he said: “If I didn’t have to leave, we wouldn’t part till the morning. People like these are very important to us in driving the development cycle.” This morning I was visiting the same Crystal Hall where Marković had dinner with the businessmen and where the day after we declared the most successful businessmen of Yugoslavia. I’m happy that exactly 26 years later, in the same room, with the same joy, we will celebrate the most successful women of regional communication industry.
After the meeting with Hyatt’s team I went to the meeting in Publicis One with Miša Lukić. This was our second meeting in a short time. Publicis One will also be our strategic partner. Miša and I spent almost three hours talking about what our individual and common objectives are in this collaboration. Miša spent the past four months, in the 30 markets for which he is responsible, implementing the concept of creating Publicis One, in order to form a complete infrastructure, so in the next phase he could move on to the development of the creative part of the job. He explained to me in detail Maurice Levy’s idea and his Publicis One concept. A great idea of the great man of communications industry. I am glad that, in our own domain, we will have the opportunity to be part of that story. We discussed this further over a lunch at Žabar’s.
I came back to Sarajevo full of impressions from meetings with Srđan and Miša. I got a much needed amount of positive energy and optimism. All the good days are ahead of us!
As I drove to Sarajevo I received a call from Mojca Briščik from the SOZ. She asked if I would moderate a panel in the main program of Golden Drum, with the participation of Marko Pekica, Vlado Čeh, Jernej Repovš and Jure Apih. I accepted with great pleasure. We will be the geriatric section of the Golden Drum, but we certainly have things to say. Golden Drum was built on the foundations of the Yugoslav festival of market communications in Portorož, and this latter one was ‘born’ one evening in 1983, when the same team that will gather on the panel, at a bar in a hotel in Ilidža near Sarajevo, drank good wine and dreamed about how to improve the industry. There it was decided to organize the Festival. Repovš was then chairman of the Union of Advertisers of Yugoslavia and at the spot he tasked Marko Pekica to be the first director of the Festival. Everything after that is history. Jernej, Vlado, Marko and Jure are older than me, and all were at one time my idols, people who with their influence “marked” the most important period of my professional life. My career is a simple sum of these influences. So it’s an honor for me to moderate this story. It will be a fantastic 75 minutes of this year’s Golden Drum. We haven’t said our last words yet. I called them on the phone and informed them about the panel, because Mojca left it to me. All are glad that we will gather together on the main stage of the Golden Drum.
It’s Friday. Zlatko Berbić called to say that he and his wife Edina are in Sarajevo and that they would like to have a cup of coffee. Gladly, my friends from Tuzla came. Edina has built a great career of a contemporary artist in New York. Now she’s trying to do something in the region. She talked about a great installation called Freedom that she would like to set up in the region. All our talk boils down to contemporary art, our portal Art&Business and the support that we can provide. The talk went on and on. We reach the topic of young artists, including those dealing with contemporary art. All roads lead to Mokrin. We agreed to establish the Mokrin Contemporary Arts Academy, whose dean would be Edina. Cosmic forces are favorable to us. We begin in November, when in the Kuća na ravnom bregu we will gather the first group of young contemporary artists. Mokrin can become a European center for young contemporary artists, gallery owners, young journalists who want to improve at writing about contemporary art. Only sky is the limit for this project.
Immediately after the meeting with Zlatko and Edina sent an email to Bane Brkljač to inform him about the meeting. As I pressed ‘send’, I received a mail from Bane. Our emails passed each other somewhere above Šabac. But this is a story for another occasion. It’s late, it’s Sunday evening, this has to be translated and proofread so it could appear on the portal in the morning. Media Marketing team is hard at work!