Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
At the beginning of last week, Vedrana and I first went to Banja Luka, then to Sv. Nedelja, to pick up the Creative Portfolio from Printera printing house. On Tuesday we stayed the night at a wonderful small hotel in Zagorje, near Komrovec. I couldn’t wait for the dawn to come, so we could go to the printing house. I have worked ten months on the book Creative Portfolio, in which we presented 152 campaigns that were awarded at all national and regional festivals last year. No, the actual work did not take that long, but I did occasionally left it aside for a month or two, just to catch up with other obligations. I would never have finished it had my daughter Asja not joined me. She will run the project solo from the next issue. This book is very important because it testifies about region’s creativity in a year. It can be useful to everyone, as each campaign is presented on two pages, in Bosnian and English (brief, challenge, solution, idea, realization, results, project team) and with key visuals. Perhaps it is most important for those agencies that are not in the book, and would like to be in it. The only condition for it is an award at one of the festivals.
We arrived at Printera early in the morning. When Mirko Koren, sales director of Printera, brought me the first copy and asked me to write him a dedication, I realized that we have an excellent book. I don’t know why, but a year-and-a-half earlier he didn’t ask for a dedication in The Best of Adriatic Creative Directors. When I signed it, Mirko took the book and before he gave it to me to have a look at it, he said a few very important sentences about how he sees this project, what this book should mean for the advertising industry in the long run, etc. I was pleasantly surprised. Finally, I took it in my hands. I turned the pages carefully. One by one. Everyone gave their best. Žare Kerin, Art Director (Futura DDB), Marjan Božič, DTP (Futura DDB) and Printera. The print is fantastic, design, formatting, everything is done so that this book can rub shoulders with others at any publishing exhibition in the world. Of course, Asja and I were responsible for the text, the idea for this project is ours, and we also did our best. Thank you all. Thank you Adnan Arnautlija for the translation to English language, and thank you Alma Duraković for the brilliant editing job, and for enduring all my frustrations throughout the whole process.
While we were drinking coffee in Printera, I decided to take the books that the Slovenian agencies bought, and to go straight to Ljubljana, to personally deliver them and see the reactions. It’s one thing when people react at first sight, and a completely different thing when they send you a comment by mail. I packed the car with books (went through the border without a hitch) and quickly arrived in Ljubljana. Vedrana went on a tour of the Ljubljana shops, and I first went to the FestFest to give books to Jure Apih and Meta Dobnikar. If there had not been for Jure in my life long ago, perhaps today I wouldn’t even have this book, or be in this business for that matter. When they saw the book, they were delighted. I’m not going to write here all the things they told me. It’s enough to say that I received sincere congratulations from them, and who doesn’t enjoy that. From FestFest I went to Mediana, but I didn’t find Jana Božič Marolt there. She was in Belgrade, at the Direct Media Academy. I was going to DM Academy as well, but I left Janja two books at the office, so she wouldn’t have to drag them all the way from Belgrade. Each book weighs 2.5 kilos. Formitas is in the same building. I knew that Mitja Tuškej was also in Belgrade at the Academy, but I found Mojca Randl in the office. She was full of compliments for the book. I talked to her about our big autumn project and she offered to find us a team in Ljubljana that would work with us. When you have such friends, nothing is difficult. From Formitas I went to Pristop, which had ordered the most books, and immediately ran into Aljoša Bagola. The smile on his face, when he took the book in his hand and began to turn the pages… That’s something I won’t soon forget. These are the reactions I wanted to see. Not that they like the book – but this uncontrolled reaction, pure emotion. I wanted to see that which simply pours out of a person. The book is heavy, the packages are heavy. For a man at my age it is not easy to be a paper delivery boy, but Creative Portfolio is Asja’s and my book, and that’s why they were like a feather to me. The reactions I saw are quite enough compensation for the effort. I left Mercator for last. A cherry on top. Viktorija Radojevic was indeed delighted with the book and the fact that Mercator’s ad was in it. Mercator is a true Friend of Creativity. We are organizing a book promotion in Ljubljana on Monday, 28 May at 16:00hrs, hosted by Mercator at Maxi Club.
I’m sorry I couldn’t get to all the agencies. I asked the taxi driver – who spent the entire morning driving me through Ljubljana – to bring the books tomorrow to Mojca Briščik to SOZ and Mojca Majhen in Paidea. I also asked Mojca Randl to deliver three books from her “pile” to the Grey Ljubljana agency, and one book to Valerija Prevolšek, director of MediaPool and Sempl, with a promise I would return her five books at the Ljubljana promotion. That’s when I became aware of my big mistake. Valerija should have been one of the first to receive the book, because she was the first who recognized the importance of the project, she bought an ad in it, which contributed to making the book what it is. Luckily, I will be returning to Ljubljana soon, and I will devote and present her a book as part of my promotion address. She deserved it.
We left Ljubljana. After coming to Croatia, we stopped by Printera once again to pick up the books for Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then continued to Belgrade. We arrived at the hotel one hour after midnight, and concluded that we had travelled over 700 km that day.
I had my first coffee on Thursday with Bora Miljanovic at Hilton. The hotel was opened recently. Looks great, radiates with luxury, the service is perfect, as well as the coffee. Bora wanted us to have coffee there, probably because of his agency Represent Communications was declared PR Agency of the Year in the Hilton the night before. He told me his impressions from the award ceremony of the Serbian Public Relations Association. We agreed on cooperation on producing video content for new projects of Media Marketing, and we are slowly moving to strategic co-operation on some projects.
From Hilton, I rushed to the Belgrade Philharmonic to meet with Ivan Tasovac. In the years when Ivan was Serbian Culture Minister, we didn’t have many chances to see each other, so we had a lot to tell each other. I found him in a great mood, because he had just received news that his brother, who lives and works as a scientist in Berlin, was chosen, as I understand, the president of the European Scientific Association for Digital. Whatever the thing is called, it must be very important, as I stood witness to many media calls who wanted to know the details, as it is very important thing for Serbia that one of their own has reached such an important position. Ivan showed me the program for the new season, and the materials they have printed. I learned that they have received the project for the construction of the new building for the Belgrade Philharmonic. Tasovac is still his old self, full of ideas and energy to make them a reality.
That Thursday was a holiday for Belgrade, its saint’s day. The church procession was going through the city center, the traffic was blocked, the taxi drivers did not drive, so I did some fast walking to the I&F McCann for a meeting with Marija Vičić, for whom I had left packets with their books at the reception early in the morning. The meeting with Marija was joined by Radiša Kričak. Of course, we first commented on the book. They are very pleased, so I again received a couple of compliments for Asja’s and my work. I wrote dedications to Srdjan Šaper, Marija, Rade and Vlatko Dimovski, and then we started discussing a detailed plan of cooperation for the next three months. After the meeting I came back to Vlatko. Long time no see. Since I was risking of being late for a lunch at Madera, I agreed with Vlatko to meet for a coffee at five.
At Madera I dined with Slaven Kontić, a young man with whom I agreed to sign a cooperation agreement. Slaven thus became our correspondent from Belgrade. We’ve been searching for the right solution for a long time and I think we finally found it. Slaven is the son of my friend Bora Kontić, with whom I worked a dozen years at Radio Sarajevo. As soon as we sat down, I told him: “Today we have lunch together because of your father, but how many times we will repeat this depends solely on you.” I left the table to greet Srdjan Šaper who also had guests at lunch in Madera. He told me: “I just got a couple of seconds to skim through the Creative Portfolio – enough to see that the book is great.” Slaven and I were later joined by his father Boro, who was also in Belgrade those days. We went separate ways later, certain that we had agreed something good.
I went to Represent Communications for a meeting with Jelena Mikic, Regional Director of Represent. This meeting was arranged by Bora Miljanovic during the morning coffee, so we could start with the operationalization of our morning agreement in Hilton. What Jelena and I talked about is still not for sharing, although I would love if I could share it with you. All in all, the meeting was very inspirational.
From there I went to the agreed coffee with Vlatko. I’ve already said that we haven’t seen each other for a long time – I think since December – which is a very long time for the two of us. Vlatko has been the regional director of I&F McCann Group since January and director of agency McCann Belgrade. He says the business is going well, that there’s a lot of it, that he doesn’t have the time to travel the region because of obligations in Belgrade agency, but that he will soon come to Sarajevo. We ask each other about our mutual friends. One of them is Mario Cvitkovic. I call him by phone thinking he’s in Sarajevo or Zagreb. He didn’t pick up, but he sent a message from the Tajikistan where he is working now. “My dear Ekrem,” Vlatko said, “even you no longer hold all the information under control.”
I went to the hotel to meet with Vedrana and go to dinner. The day was very successful.
On Friday morning I first went to New Moment. As I arrived before everyone else, I left Lazar Sakan the books with a message and went to the Francuska street, at the UEPS office to meet with Stana Šehalić. The works that received the UEPS awards are the most numerous in the book. I once again begged Stana to reduce the number of awards. We spent half an hour drinking coffee and discussing UEPS, and then we went to Zemun to Madlenianum Theater at the Direct Media Academy together. Many people in the theatre and in front of it. Fortunately, as always, there were a lot of familiar faces at the DM Academy. Drinking coffee and having a smoke. I just greeted with a few of them on the go. Milica Markovic prepared a different kind of entertainment for Mitja Tuškej and me. We were to sign our books. Mitja got a table in the left corner of the hall, I got one in the right. Direct Media decided to give participants Mitja’s book “No Friends, No Brands”, and my book, Hotel Yugoslavia, with the dedication of the authors. A nice crowd gathered. I also stashed ten copies of the Creative Portfolio under my table, with the intention of giving them and dedicating them to the special guests of the Academy. It was very fun. I had an advantage over Mitja. He “just” wrote a book No Friends No Brands, but I translated it from Slovenian. So I had a book, one of my own, and one translation. We were both very happy to have this opportunity.
We quickly left Madlenianum and rushed to the center of Belgrade back to the UEPS office. Stana stayed for the second lecture, and I left her books in the office for Belgrade agencies to send them by mail or so they could come and pick them up. After that, Vedrana and I cross over the street for lunch at the Writers’ Club. We enjoyed the lunch and summed up all the events of the past three days. It was tiring and exciting, but Babi and I can still push on.
We hopped in the car and returned to Sarajevo. From the direction of Belgrade, you enter Sarajevo through Baščaršija. We stopped for a pie, because, as our granddaughter Tara says, “life is better with pie”. There is no place like Sarajevo.
23 May 2018.