Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Immediately after the promotion of the Creative Portfolio in Ljubljana, Vedrana and I went to Belgrade. We arrived at the hotel a little before midnight. No fatigue.
The first meeting on Tuesday at 10 am was with Anđelko Tripković, the regional director of Publicis One. I know Anđelko for a couple of years now, and still remember the enthusiasm with which Miša Lukić told me of how he managed to bring a great man to the helm of Belgrade’s Publicis. Already then he was speaking of Anđelko as his successor. And he was. When Miša took over Publicis One in 30 countries two years ago, he had already prepped Anđelko to take responsibility for all the agencies in the Adriatic region.
Anđelko knows all about our business. He is young, knowledgeable, creative, professional, full of ideas, has excellent skills for teamwork and team coordination in various agencies. He says he is a digital agnostic. He believes in the power and future of digital, but refuses to be its slave. He explained to me the long-awaited AI Marcel platform, which Publicis One launched a couple of days ago, and which will speed up their transformation from a holding company into a business platform, remove borders and facilitate cooperation of as many as 80,000 employees around the world, thus introducing “a new era of creativity and innovation”.
He is very much attached to the regional concept of Publicis One because he sees the Adriatic region as a single market. That is why on the wall of his cozy and beautiful offices he has the contours of the former common state, which he made by himself out of thread, with each new state represented within it individually. In order to “weave” it in one go, the thread connects two states only in one place so the “drawing” could continue. That crossing from one state to another symbolizes the connection of the region into one market – which we actually are, whether we want to admit it or not. Our best (and largest) trade is still with each other.
The conversation was very inspirational so immediately tomorrow I sent a mail to Anđelko asking for an appointment to do an interview. It will come one of these days.
From Publicis One I went to Direct Media for a meeting with Milica Marković. We talked about the Direct Media Academy and analyzed the results. Milica says that the Academy was a success in every sense, and that they are already working on the concept for the next one. A couple of days earlier I also spoke about this event with Mitja Tuškej in Ljubljana. He was very pleased how everything went, and is already looking forward to the next event.
I also talked with Milica about continuing our cooperation in the second part of this year, and I’m happy with what we agreed on.
From Direct Media I went to pick up Vedrana and head for Sarajevo. As soon as we started climbing Romanija from Vlasenica, Vedrana took out the CD of Vlado Kreslin, and replaced it with the CD of Halid Bešlić. That has already become an established ritual of ours. And it’s always the album Romanija. We sing along with Halid with full lungs, and if you haven’t heard this song you should definitely check it out, and you’ll see why Romanija is the most beautiful mountain in the world. This video was watched by nearly four million people.
On Wednesday, the postman brought me the book of Jure Apih Za lepo misel dam cekin. This is the book of Jure’s columns in the Neradnih Sedam series, published in the daily newspaper Delo from 15 November 2015 to 4 February 2018. The book came with a dedication: “Books are not a serious business. I don’t write them to get rich, I write them so someone would read them. The circle of people we have in mind when we wonder how the written word and thought will ring out is not big. I will not wait for all of you, who mean a lot to me, to go to the bookstore and ask about Jure’s new book. So I’m sending it to you, as a present, because even the thought that you will take it in your hands, and open it, brings me immense joy. Thank you. Jure.” I open it right away and start reading.
On Thursday I had two important meetings.
The first was with Lamija and Eldin, who showed me the basics of design and content of the Creative Portfolio website. It looks fantastic at first glance. The content, as they imagined it, is great. It remains for us to sit down next week with the developer and see how we will do it all. The site should be finished by the end of the summer.
The second meeting was with Slaven Kontić, our new collaborator from Belgrade. I introduced him to Adnan because most communication will go between the two of them. He instills trust with his calmness and the way he thinks. I think we’ve found the right person, and I look forward to that cooperation.
All day Friday is reserved for the Branding Conference. It was the best so far – witnessed by the full hall of the Youth House in Sarajevo. And not just that. You could see how much it matured, you could feel that Vesna Beganović and her associates firmly hold the project in their hands, which is a great indication of great conferences to come. The choice of speakers was excellent. Karim Rashid, Boris Nemšić, David Balfour, Lenja Faraguna, Davor Bruketa in the panel on local brands … Everyone got a well-deserved applause of a full hall.
More about the Branding Conference can be found in Adnan’s article that is also published today. I just wanted to point out that the Conference was truly great, that I learned a lot and that I met many interesting people. The meeting with Lenja Faraguna after more than a year has been something special, the best ending possible to the conference.
At the Branding Conference, I quickly formed our own “social network”, a group of people with whom Adnan and I mingled in all the breaks at one of Skenderija’s cafes: Alem Lolić, director of TNT local radio station network, Dijana Brkan, marketing director at FIS, best advertiser on TNT radio, Dragan Rujević, New Moment Banja Luka, Nermin Nino Kasupović and Mehmet Mahmutović, Creative Republic of Bihać. In the afternoon, Davor Bruketa joined us as an active member of the network. The main theme for us was the Creative Republic this year. Davor was already in Bihać at one of previous conferences, and would like to come again, so we formally invited him to come with his wife and son, and I promised to take them to Ripač, where Una’s beauty is breathtaking, and to take them on a boat ride.
During the coffee breaks I phoned some potential sponsors to lobby for support for the Creative Republic. I also invited Dubravka Jusić to come to Bihać. She says she would come. I also arranged some details with Žare Kerin about his exhibition. The first solo exhibition by the great designer will be held at the Creative Republic.
On Saturday and Sunday, I communicated with Asja, Adnan and Mersel about our in-house made videos that should start rolling out on Thursday, June 7th. I eagerly await to see how portal’s readers will accept them.
June 4, 2018.
