By: Ekrem Dupanović
Last week I made my first mini-tour of the region this year. I was in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade.
My Wednesday started with a meeting with Mirko Koren in Printera (Sv. Nedelja). I came to see the sample of boxes in which we will pack the second edition of the Creative Portfolio. Mirko showed me a very simple and elegant box that has an opening on the right side to insert the book. We considered the option to print the front page of the book on the box itself. A black box with plenty of gold print would look very nice. We arranged the final deadline for sending the book to press (February 10, 2019).
From Printera I went to Ljubljana. The first was at PM, Poslovni Mediji (Business Media), a content marketing agency. I’d visited them not long ago, and this follow-up was to discuss collaboration this year. I sent my suggestions earlier, and this was a meeting for a final deal. I met with Primož Inkert, a partner in the agency. We were joined by Nenad Senić, editor of corporate media – a very enjoyable conversation with people who know everything about content. We agreed to create the Small Content Marketing Academy on the portal. PM agency is a leader in content marketing with lots of knowledge and experience, with plenty of examples that can be useful to our readers who want to master successful content marketing.
This year, the 10th POMP Forum will be organized – content marketing conference organized by PM, Poslovni Mediji. It would be interesting to have interviews with top-rated lecturers from all over the world in the time ahead of the conference, and to see how content marketing developed and how much of the predictions made at the last conference actually came true. We agreed that Nenad will prepare and submit texts that will describe content marketing strategies and their implementation.
I say goodbye to Primož and Nenad, and hurry to Mercator for a meeting with Viktorija Radojević Mavrič. I am trying to get to all of the meetings on time, because while I’m on the road I have a pretty tight schedule and if I prolong a single meeting, my entire agenda falls apart like dominoes. But that’s not the only reason. I like being punctual.
We are conducting a small analysis of our cooperation last year. Mercator is very satisfied, and so are we. We agreed to include in our collaboration this year Mercator’s companies in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. We are very interested in writing about Mercator’s marketing activities in the region because Mercator is a company that is most open to sharing such information. It’s usually the agencies that send us information about their clients’ campaigns. There are very few examples of companies who accept that their marketing activities are talked about so openly and intensively. This approach strengthens the company’s position in the communications industry, which can only have positive effects for it. We agreed to send them a brief description of all the projects we are going to implement this year to see where Mercator could be included. A big company – and Mercator is such a company – shows its size through open communication with all its publics. This year Mercator will mark 70 years of existence. There will be plenty of material for very interesting stories.
From Mercator I went to meet with Tina and Jernej Repovš, my long-time friends. We were joined by Vedrana. We drank tea in the cake shop Maxi and talked about our businesses. Tina told me a lot of great things about Studio Marketing, while Jernej is working on a study for a long time now and hopes to finish it soon. We shared information about our mutual friends. Jernej is in great shape. We reminisced thirty-forty years back, recalling the memories of some of the greatest campaigns done by Studio Marketing, back then the strongest, most creative agency in Yugoslavia.
We then moved to Linhart Hall at Cankarjev Dom. We were invited to the marking of the 60th anniversary of the newspaper Delo. It was magnificent. The event worthy of six decades of daily newspaper’s work testifying about the landmark moments in the history of Slovenia and the world. Statements by past senior editors and most important journalists were shown on the big screen. All this lasted two hours, but they passed quickly because they showed short, very interesting stories.
In the second part of the ceremony, awards were presented to the best journalists of Delo, as well as the main prize, Delo’s Personality of the Year.
At the end of the ceremony, we moved to the lobby of the Linhart Hall for the opening of the Museum of Press and the cocktail. I used the ten minutes before the opening of the museum to greet my friends, Marko Vičić, from Futura and his wife, Ladeja Godina Košir, and to thank Dolores Podbevšek Plemeniti, marketing director at Delo for the invitation.
I also talked with my acquaintance Mitja Meršol. Mitja was once the editor-in-chief of Delo, after returning from Washington where he was a correspondent to this daily. Mitja also spoke at the ceremony on two or three occasions. I remembered an ad from Delo, published sometime in 95th or 96th. A fascinating photo on which Mitja walks on the roof’s edge of Delo’s skyscraper, with entire Ljubljana in the background. It was almost chilling to look at. If I recall correctly, the tagline was: “We walk on the edge!” This photo was not shown in the program, and it seems to me that it alone could say everything about the history of Delo. I asked Mitja why they didn’t show it. He said he didn’t know, but there was certainly room for it.
Before the opening of the Museum of the Press, Vedrana and I left Cankarjev Dom, and headed for Zagreb. We arrived at the hotel while the cocktail in Ljubljana was still ongoing. I know that because I was still receiving messages from Viktorija asking me: “How’s the event?” “The event was magnificent. We left before the cocktail party and we are already in our hotel in Zagreb,” I replied. “You’re nuts,” was all that Viktorija had to say. ?
Tomorrow: The BalCannes Jury will sit for the first time outside of Rovinj – in Sarajevo!
February 12, 2019.
