By: Ekrem Dupanović
Photo: with Viktor Nikolić, president of UEPS (left) and Vladimir Čeh (right)
At the end of last week I traveled to Belgrade to take my finished book Hotel Yugoslavia and to have lunch with my friends (Jadranka, Srđan, Miša, Ivan and Žarko) and to personally hand them the first copies. They deserved it. The most!
I took advantage of my stay in Belgrade and on Thursday evening at Atelier 212 attended the UEPS awards ceremony for creativity in advertising. It was the first time I came to this ceremony to share the joy with the most successful creators.
It wasn’t always a love affair between UEPS and me. There were ups and downs. Actually, I have always been willing to support the work of the Association and promote all of its activities, but some misguided people who used to run UEPS in some periods had not always been willing to accept an objective critique for their work or lack thereof. So I was almost “blacklisted”. For a while, I was a man with whom it was not advisable to communicate, let alone cooperate. What I wrote about the UEPS’ little paper was an expression of my attachment to the Serbian advertising industry, and an attempt to point out some things that devalue the profession, as a friend.
With the arrival of the new Steering Committee, with Viktor Nikolić at the helm, things began to change from the roots up. There has been a considerable increase in the number of members, the disastrous financial situation has been brought to a positive level, a couple of seminars have been organized, the award ceremony has become a worthwhile event. The Lifetime Achievement Award has been separated into a stand-alone event, which is an excellent move and gives the reward itself (or its winner) far greater importance. Can everything be even better? It can! And could more have been done in two years? Hardly. It would be very difficult to achieve more having in mind the situation in UEPS which greeted the new Steering Board and its president. In all this, we certainly must not forget the contribution of Stana Šehalić, the Secretary General of the Association, who has introduced new tone and many new things in their communication.
Anyway, it was nice on Thursday evening at Atelier 212. If I remember correctly, 66 awards were presented to agencies, and four other special acknowledgments to individuals. 27 awards were not given, which clearly testifies the seriousness of the work of the jury chaired by Veljko Golubović, Creative Director at FCB Afirma. The agency of the year is New Moment New Ideas Company, and Advertiser of the Year is VIP Mobile.
The enthusiasm of all award winners was almost palpable. They didn’t hide it when they climbed the stage to receive the well-deserved prizes, nor at the cocktail after the ceremony. The next day, we received a dozen reports from the agencies that were among the awarded. After the UEPS award ceremony, I am always surprised by the amount of information we receive – much more than after the Days of Communication, SOF and Golden Drum. This only proves how important these awards are for the agencies and their clients. And this is an added responsibility for UEPS – to continue to advance the profession and develop the entire Serbian advertising industry.
I was honored to have delivered the first few awards. After those formal obligations, as I started to return to my seat, the host told me to stay where I was. Viktor Nikolić, President of UEPS, came out to the stage and presented me with a special recognition for the contribution of Media Marketing to the development of the industry. I didn’t come to the ceremony to receive the award because I learned about it only when I was already on the stage. I came there to be part of the support for UEPS. And I haven’t written all those things at the beginning about the “new era” of UEPS because I received this recognition.
Some things simply fall in place, and anyone can comment what they like. I just know that I had great time that night, and that I will come to be part of the support next year as well.
And in the end, I want to call on agency leaders to come in larger numbers next year to the award ceremony, and thus support their young creatives. I know for sure that it would mean a lot to them. Same as it would be good to have more advertisers on this event. These awards are for them as well. They were the first jury for each award-winning campaign. Had they not approved the ideas, they would not be competing for awards. Not to come to the UEPS awards would mean that they don’t care. And they should. Not only advertising agencies, but also advertisers who entrust their budgets to the agencies!
