8 years ago, Aleksandra Dilevska founded Publicis in Macedonia. When the need arose to establish management for the Publicis agency in Zagreb, an experienced person who knew the Group well and had proven results was needed. They tried to persuade her to take over Croatia as well, because, as they said, Macedonia had become “too small” for her. This was not an option for her, and she did not accept the proposal at first. Miša Lukić and Anđelko Trpković were persistent. At one point, she thought she needed a new challenge and to step out of the environment she knew well to try something new. Life is short!
In the beginning, it was quite difficult. Many things had to be changed, established, and built. She hoped to stay in Zagreb for a short time, just to organize things a bit and then return. But it didn’t turn out that way. A strong team was created, the agency’s offerings were improved, client relations were enhanced, and serious success was achieved. She connected with people, made new friends, fell in love with Zagreb and the sea, and it was not easy for her to leave all that behind. Just as it was not easy to leave the Macedonian agency, clients they had been working with for years, and the team she had built from scratch. So today, she lives between two homes, one in Skopje and the other in Zagreb. She lives two lives.
In both Zagreb and Skopje, she managed to create excellent teams. “In Macedonia, we grew step by step, carefully selecting people. Literally handpicking. I chose smart, hardworking, ambitious, and good people. I was completely dedicated to their development, I cared for them, and I still care for them. Now we have grown, in Skopje there are over 70 of us, our work is increasingly demanding, and I don’t have enough time to have a quality relationship with everyone, but what I believe in is the agency culture that has already been built and inherited and which is being improved with new people and their qualities.
In Zagreb, I was given an established team, but it was harder because I had to make some tough decisions, implement some changes. The team that was formed, the foundations we laid, and the excellent results we achieved allow us to invest confidently in new talents and resources and to seek what is best for us and our clients,” says Saška.
She is also responsible for regional projects and teams for specific clients and pitches. Last year, she dedicated a lot of time to agencies outside of Macedonia and Croatia. Together with the core leadership team of Publicis Adriatic, they managed to organize an efficient regional management structure, so now she intends to fully dedicate herself to further organizing the teams in Zagreb and Skopje.
“When talking about business, we usually focus on the end results, brag about successes and awards. And that’s fine. But how we got there, the path we took, the obstacles we overcame, and whether it was difficult, are the things we often don’t want to talk about. I wouldn’t want to leave the impression that my teams and I achieved everything easily, that it was simple, or that success was given to us. It involved a lot of work, thinking, attempts, negotiations, creating new teams, transitioning new clients, Group targets that are not only financial, client expectations, introducing innovations, increasingly demanding work with talents and new generations, pitches, travel… Increasing expectations, more complex work and agency product, constant pressure on agency fees. We do not work in isolation. The world around us is changing, the global political situation is changing, inflation, tectonic technological changes are happening that shape our daily private and business lives. I am pleased that we successfully navigated such a turbulent year, showed that we can do more, and came out stronger. This is all the result of the joint work of all the people in the agencies, a lot of dedication and professionalism, focus on the performance of our clients and the improvement of our competencies, especially in the digital arena. We connected and strengthened regional teams and structure well and established a true One Team in the Adriatic,” says Aleksandra, adding:
“In both Zagreb and Skopje, we gained new clients in all areas, established a regional hub for Nomad, improved client relations, enhanced the local and regional agency product, and opened a Commerce practice in Skopje. We achieved a duble digit growth in North Macedonia and Croatia, way above market growth. Publicis Media Croatia billing has grown by 45%; both operations have good financial performance which allows us to develop. This was a good foundation for this year and next, 2025, in which we are focused on the quality of our agency product, investments in talents and technology, automation, and new specializations and services.”
Saška talks about all of this with a smile. She is mostly like that—cheerful and smiling. She approaches every problem rationally, analyzes the situation, and tries to find the best and least painful solution. Although she says she initially approaches everything with emotions, she isn’t quite as rational 😊. When she talks about her teams in Skopje and Zagreb, she speaks with a lot of respect for their work and creativity.
Accelerated technological changes have a huge impact on the advertising industry and on the businesses of clients. What provides security in this time of rapid change is that the Publicis Groupe is at the forefront of these technological innovations in our industry. The Publicis Groupe ended 2023 as the most valuable communications holding group in the world by market capitalization, leading in new business wins, as well as in organic growth. This year, the network’s value has grown even more and has established itself as the #1 network in the world by market capitalization, significantly ahead of OMG and WPP. All of this is the result of a clear vision, large investments in data and tech capabilities that were created several years ago through the acquisition and integration of some of the leading companies in the field of technology and data, such as Sapient, Epsilon, Profitero, and above all, due to investments in its own AI.
Have some of these changes initiated or forced Publicis to change its own ways of working?
“We in the Adriatic region keep pace with the development of the industry and our group. In 2023, we invested in and launched a Commerce practice in Skopje, to support the development of clients in our region in this fast-growing sphere, whether it’s e-commerce, SEO, content production, or something else. Creative commerce is also one of our Group’s priorities, and we are working intensively in this field. The combination of media, creative, and tech resources that we have allows us to offer a unique proposition in this sphere on the regional market. Likewise, we are developing our data capabilities as well as all the possibilities that AI already offers for more efficient and faster work on ongoing projects.
We have also launched Content Production, which logically follows Creative Commerce, Social Media, and Social Commerce. We are investing in new specializations and growing in that area together with our clients. In the upcoming period, we will focus on the development and application of Group tools and strategic partnerships to obtain better data and insights, and thus be able to efficiently create personalized dynamic content at scale, maximize the effects of media and communication channels, and thus build stronger customer relationships and generate commerce outcomes.
In Croatia, we have already invested in and brought GWI to the market for the first time in the Adriatic region, which is particularly important for us and our clients because our group tools are designed to work with GWI data. And as we speak, we are also bringing the K2 reach optimizer tool to the Croatian market. With these investments, we have also contributed to the development of the local industry.”
The most dynamic changes in advertising are happening in technologies. How successful are you, given all your responsibilities, in keeping up with technological changes, and how successful are the agencies you lead? What technological challenges can you handle on your own, and what do you rely on Publicis Groupe for?
With a smile, she says she manages everything in bursts, but not as much as she would like. Where she stops, her people go further. Sometimes they just show interest, explore, and develop, but in reality, their North Star is Publicis Groupe, as it is significantly ahead of other global networks. “So much is happening daily that we barely manage to keep up with the news on our AI-powered platform, Marcel. Many opportunities, knowledge, and tools are more accessible to us than ever before. What we strive to do is create a quality synergy between our local knowledge, talent, and achievements with the resources and tools that Publicis Groupe provides us with daily.”
As an example, Aleksandra takes AI. Publicis Groupe announced at the beginning of the year a $300 million investment in their own AI initiative and introduced its CoreAI platform. CoreAI is an internal platform that utilizes AI to improve efficiency of all employees in the Groupe. It is being implemented in five key areas; insight and strategy; media planning; creative and production; software development, and operations. The platform is built on proprietary data from trillions of touchpoints along with 2.3 billion consumer profiles.
Publicis Groupe is proud of the fact that they are leading the AI development in the global industry and are way ahead in its implementation compared to rivals.
Publicis Groupe recognized the potential of AI quite early and already has strategic partnerships with some of the leading AI platforms: OpenAI, Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, Bria, Midjourney, RunwayML and others. With unmatched possibilities for education and training on our Marcel platform, the goal for our talent in the Adriatic region is to stay continuously updated and be part of the changes the Groupe is leading globally.
While we are talking, she mentions that Marcel has created a personalized AI training program for all 100,000 employees of Publicis Groupe, including herself.
We are halfway through the year, but we can still talk about this year’s wishes and expectations. What does she wish for the advertising industry, how does she want the communication industry to develop?
Saška believes that our industry should transform and focus more clearly on solutions directly aimed at the business growth of clients. Technology, the new customer journey, social commerce, social media content, AI – all of these have brought a lot of complexity, but also opportunities to leverage the most out of what is coming, to function in creating more effective solutions.
“Sometimes it seems to me that there is too much focus in the industry on how good, smart, creative and excellent we and our products are, and what awards we have won, and not enough on whether we have truly added value to the client’s brand with our potential, ideas, and solutions, whether we have brought it closer to people, whether it is more beloved, whether it sells in increasingly competitive markets, whether we have built loyalty that guarantees its future. By using new technologies, I believe we will be more efficient and creative, focusing on the part of the job that adds the most value to our clients’ and, of course, our business.“
Regarding the period before our conversation, Aleksandra recalls with pleasure the victories in pitches and acquired clients, as well as personal advancements achieved by her team members. She is proud of her teams that created and executed excellent, successful campaigns for the clients in both agencies; she is proud of successfully setting up the Nomad Hub for the Adriatic in Zagreb; of establishing the new Commerce & Content unit in Skopje, of #napravimesto campaign for Makedonski Telekom.
She takes pride in receiving very good and improved client evaluations in both agencies. She is proud of the awards received: Awards for Skopsko SmoothOn, the Young Lions award for Publicis’s young lionesses in Zagreb, awards for Crnogorski Telekom, recognitions for Heineken 150 years, awards at the global Publicis Groupe ROI Excellence Awards, and the Publicis Groupe ‘Make It’ Strategy Awards.
She is proud to have been part of the Woman.Comm conference for two years, where she enables selected female leaders to participate in the Women’s Forum in Paris, travel to Paris, and connect with leaders from around the world.
And what would she most like to forget?
In principle, she believes that her mental health is based on not remembering unpleasant and negative things. She simply leaves them behind and moves forward. However, there is one thing that disappointed her, but she considers it normal and focuses on learning, the future, and new practices, not dwelling on the past. What she definitely wants to forget are wars, politics, corruption… She hopes that we will have a more peaceful and positive future in that regard.
She looks forward to new friendships, planned travels, social gatherings, and the successes of her friends.
Professionally, she is excited about new ventures in new waters: Commerce, CRM, Data. Integrating AI into daily work and discovering new potentials. Learning new things.
She looks forward to good relationships and long-term clients, beautiful projects… She looks forward to working with smart and hardworking people, the professional growth of people through the agency, and the opportunity to influence someone’s development and direction – she believes that’s a blessing for every leader.
“I also find significant the broader implementation of the Work With Cancer initiative in our Adriatic business environment. I am motivated by the continuous challenge of creating an environment where creativity is celebrated, people are respected, and success is inevitable.“
Saška travels a lot, on average she packs every four to five days. She travels for meetings, conferences, festivals… Occasionally, she is lucky to spend weekends by the sea or at her home in the Mavrovo National Park. She lives between two, actually three homes and has gotten used to it. She would love to stay longer in one place, but it doesn’t seem to work out for her.
Apart from Zagreb, she often travels to Belgrade, Ljubljana, Podgorica, sometimes to Tirana, Athens, Bucharest, Warsaw, Sarajevo. And Cannes, she tries not to miss the Cannes Lions Festival.
She travels so frequently on the Skopje-Zagreb-Skopje route that she knows the people from Croatia Airlines quite well. According to her app, last year she flew between Skopje and Zagreb 35 times. In jest, she says that her life significantly depends on Croatia Airlines’ flight schedule.
I can’t wait for October and the Woman.Comm conference to meet her. Saška travels more and more, while I travel less. I’m not up for it anymore. After 55 years of intensive work, it’s time for me to rest. Unlike Saška, for whom a longer stay in one place is a dream, it’s happening to me and I enjoy it; I don’t remember feeling better.
Aleksandra Dilevska received the French Order of Arts and Letters for her contribution to the development of cultural cooperation between Macedonia and France. Besides the honor, this title comes with responsibilities, and that’s one of the obligations she loves. With her team in Macedonia, she works pro bono for culture and art projects. She would like to have more time for art and culture, as she believes they are extremely important for society, for us as individuals, for the richness of the spirit. Working on these projects is always a great inspiration and pleasure for the people in her team.
Dear readers, if at the end, you still feel like there’s a small piece missing in the mosaic called Aleksandra Dilevska, here is her response to my question about what the experiences in all these years have taught her:
- The essence is having the right, more precisely, the correct motivation. Perhaps it’s different for everyone. For me, ‘Passion first, money will follow‘ applies. Focus on doing the right thing. Money is a consequence, not the goal, it will come.
- One of the most rewarding things is working with good people, better than me.
- To give and do the best I can at any given moment, and not expect anything in return from anyone.
- Whenever I compromised and acted contrary to my beliefs, convictions, and principles, it always proved to be wrong, even though many convinced me it was good and the right thing to do.
