Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Tihana Tais graduated from the Department of Marketing at the Faculty of Economics in Sarajevo and immediately began working in the agency Direct Media. That was thirteen years ago. She began, as she says, from scratch, as a media planner. She has worked, learned and perfected herself in this business, and rose because of it. These days she will mark her first year in the position of Managing Director of the agency Direct Media Sarajevo. It’s as good reason as any to talk with her for Media Marketing.
Media Marketing: It will soon be one year since you took the helm at Direct Media for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In twelve years you went from apprentice media planner to the Managing Director for BiH market – an enviable career. How did it develop over the recent years?
Tihana Tais: Yes, soon it will be a year since I assumed the position of Managing Director of Direct Media in Sarajevo. I must stress that I’m very happy and proud of the fact that I have went through all the phases of my professional development in this industry in the Direct Media System. I started, as people say, from scratch. Besides my affinity to numbers, which were always my strong point, and sympathy towards this profession which I chose to study, I had no experience of working in the media industry. Under the influence of American films and series, I imagined this job in a way different from what it actually is.
Over time I learned that it is much more complex, but also more interesting and, in any case, far more challenging than what I imagined. There were all sorts of things, more or less pleasant. From each such situation I emerged richer in experience. In large part thanks to this, today I am in a position to run the Direct Media in Sarajevo. Why do I stress “in large part” and not completely? I simply have to note that no matter how much you love some job, and no matter how much you try, if you don’t have a mentor who not only knows how to recognize and develop that in the right way, but also is someone from whom you can really learn a lot, all the love and effort can “go down the drain”. That’s why I would use this opportunity to particularly thank my former director and my mentor, Aleksandra Ćuk, for everything she taught me, for knowing how to recognize what I have to offer, and thus, together with the whole Direct Media System, provided me with a great opportunity.
Media Marketing: What was the campaign (or a client) that you most remember from the last thirteen years?
Tihana Tais: Every client and every campaign, regardless of the size in the quantitative sense, represents a particular challenge, and you have to pay each and every one your maximum attention. To that end, I couldn’t single out a single campaign or a client in relation to the other.
However, what I can put aside are campaigns that remain in my memory: my first independently planned and executed campaign, then the first campaign implemented by, at that time, the new system of buying airtime on TV stations, and the first campaign planned and implemented via software solutions that put Direct Media side by side with the world’s largest agencies.
Media Marketing: You’ve spent your entire career in a media agency. Did you ever wish to work in an advertising agency, and try out some other jobs in the communications industry?
Tihana Tais: Although the media department, so to speak, takes up the largest share of the pie, Direct Media Sarajevo is a full service agency and offers its clients with a full range of services in the field of advertising and communication. Since we also have a very large number of excellent and very successful projects that do not concern only the media part, I can freely say that I not only know the communications industry as a whole, but I also have experience in it.
If you ask me whether I’d ventured into communications “on some other side”, since I have always been on the agency side, honestly, the agency work is something that I not only love, but also something that I very much enjoy. The reason lies not only in the many years of experience and that here I’m “playing the home field advantage”, but also in the fact that this work provides enough challenges to everyone who loves it and who is truly engaged in it. Contributing to this is of course the industry, which itself is very dynamic and provides plenty of space for learning and continuous improvement. However, from the agency side, it’s even more challenging, since the agency is a place where, in a sense, many sides merge.
On the other hand, when I think of Direct Media, I don’t think only of the enviable reputation which it has gained over the years, but also the people who make this agency. To a lesser or greater extent, we have been together for years – some even longer than a decade – so we are not only colleagues, but in some way we are a family. Together, we have enjoyed throughout all these years, as a family we faced with many difficulties and, as a family, we overcame them.
From this point of view, I must emphasize that I feel the Direct Media agency as my “second home”, and we all know what that really means. :)
Media Marketing: For years now you are working in the turbulent and largely poorly arranged media market in BiH. What’s your take on it? Should some things be repaired, and how do you think that could be accomplished?
Tihana Tais: This is the topic of most conversations about the media industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I think there is not much new to say. The market is, obviously, unregulated and inconsistent. In addition to nonexistent quality legislation that would cover our branch, which, in a way, gives birth to all the other problems, there are many other challenges that need to be overcome daily.
Paradoxically, for example, clients advertise in BiH through cable television and the press from neighboring countries, and no one in Bosnia and Herzegovina has benefit from that. Of course that this situation leads to a derogation of local media that, in the fight for a minimum of financial resources, sometimes lower the prices of their advertising space, which not only leads themselves into a bad financial situation, but results in an unfavorable situation for the overall media market. On the other hand, certain agencies in the fight to win over new clients or retain old ones further damp the already low prices. Of course, advertisers, because of the increasingly lower quality caused by this, reduce their budgets earmarked for advertising in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, in this situation, ultimately everyone is at a loss, including the clients who don’t receive the expected quality. The state, on the other hand, still doesn’t have enough sense to regulate these issues.
As I pointed out at the beginning, the first step that we should make is the enactment and adoption of a single law on advertising. As far as I know, this initiative was launched a long time ago by the Association of BH Journalists, the Press Council, Media Center and the NGO Ja BiH EU. The draft law is in the making, and the whole project is supported by the European Union. However, in order for the law to be fully encompassing and effective, it is necessary that all the stakeholders in the market get involved in this process. For now it is not so, but I hope that this situation will soon change and that everyone will understand that passing such a regulation is absolutely in our common interest.
Another very important thing that we should start from are research efforts, which in BiH are in a very poor level. This is also an issue that needs to be given special attention, and in which all the stakeholders should be involved.
However, as is usually the case in every situation, no matter how bad it is, there is always room for improvement, which should not be neglected. Direct Media is in that sense very pro-active through the sphere of constant training of people, active participation in the improvement of existing and introduction of new research, and dissemination and perfecting of the range of internal and external tools, specialized for our branch.
As my colleague Nermin Kaljača, Media Director of Direct Media Sarajevo, says: “This completes our offer and clearly shows that even during the crisis, in the market where budgets are tenth of the money in comparison to the developed countries, and where they are in constant decline, we should not give up on the notion that only the best is good enough.”
Media Marketing: You work in a well-organized media system such as Direct Media is. How much do you communicate with the colleagues from the other DM agencies in the region, how much do you use the joint synergy to provide quality service for your clients?
Tihana Tais: Direct Media exists in eight states in the region, namely: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. Cooperation between all these offices is excellent. Under the auspices of Direct Media Belgrade, we regularly have academies, workshops, seminars, conferences and informal meetings involving all our employees. The goal of these meetings is primarily acquiring new knowledge and skills and encouraging mutual friendship. All of us, even though we are part of the same system, work in different conditions, so we have different experiences. It is at these get-togethers that we exchange experiences, discuss them and draw conclusions, with the aim of better servicing of our clients, on one hand, and the ongoing development of the system and local offices, on the other hand.
Media Marketing: What portion of the DM BiH portfolio is made by local clients, and how many are clients from the Direct Media System?
Tihana Tais: Most of our clients are from the Direct Media System. These are big companies and global brands who like to invest their trust in an agency which proved to be professional, responsible and of very good quality. That way they invest fewer resources, and receive much better service.
On the other hand, we are very proud of our local clients who have recognized all these qualities that Direct Media System has at the local level.
Media Marketing: What are the latest trends in the media business, and how much can you apply them in your work? How ready are clients in BiH to accept them?
Tihana Tais: Global trends are difficult to apply in Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to the limiting factors of our market, primarily in terms of its size and lack of budget. The biggest trend globally is the huge growth of online advertising, not only in terms of investment, but also the possibilities for message placement, whether it’s about classic ad placement, through programmatic, online TV and the like.
The second, in BiH perhaps less recognized trend, is the mode of communication and content itself, where there is a strong shift from ‘push’ to ‘pull’ in communication strategies, which means interactive communication.
We – the countries of the region and particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina – are still a long way from many world trends. Some of them, even if they come, they come very slowly, so slowly that I’m afraid that when they arrive in BiH, they will already be part of history in the world. The reason for this is that the trends are changing faster than ever.