The industry long believed that growth came from loyalty, but research in recent years shows the opposite: consumers are increasingly inclined to experiment, loyalty is weakening, and brands are growing primarily through new customers. According to the 2023 Data & Marketing Association research, as many as 61% of consumers say they are less loyal than a year earlier, while among Gen Z audiences the willingness to try new brands is even more pronounced – 77% actively seek new options.
Such changes naturally spill over into the communications industry. The focus is increasingly shifting from loyalty as a stable category toward the constant acquisition of new customers, but also toward the search for authenticity in communication that is increasingly too uniform. As content becomes technically almost flawless, audiences more easily recognise what feels generic, and instinctively look for traces of humanity, even if they come through small imperfections or spontaneity.
It is precisely this space between growth, creativity and genuine audience understanding that we discussed with the Aquarius Group team: Brankica Janković – CEO, Aleksandar Živanić – Creative Director, Igor Kalaba – Director of Strategic Planning, Maja Desančić – Event Director and Vanja Kalaba – Client Lead.
Brankica Janković – CEO
1. If you had to summarise 2025 in one strategic decision you would make again, and one you would make completely differently today – what would those two “plot twists” be?
I never regret decisions I’ve made. I would once again expand into the region and open offices in Belgrade and Zagreb.
2. What made your agency grow up the most this year, and what made it play again like a child?
We have existed for 32 years, so the status of being grown-up and the responsibility that comes with it are already given to us, and we play every day when we create something new, because creativity is a constant game.
3. If the Adriatic industry were a publicly traded company, what rating would you give it entering 2026? And why should investors keep (or not keep) their shares?
If we speak in our own name (and that’s all we can do), we tell those imaginary investors to keep their shares and buy more, because real growth is yet to come.
Aleksandar Živanić, Creative Director
4. Which idea in 2025 made you stand up from the table and say “Okay, this is why I still do this job”?
There were several, but the Moncler “Warmer Together” campaign is certainly one of them.
5. What was your biggest creative risk this year, and did it pay off in the way you expected… or in a way you couldn’t have predicted?
Integrating AI technology as a tool that genuinely stimulates, rather than replaces, human creativity. It’s not a question of whether it pays off, because the process is inevitable, but it is complicated and risky. On one hand, AI is developing in unpredictable, exponential leaps that are difficult to follow. On the other, our biggest challenge is actually human in nature. How to restrain our own tendency toward the path of least resistance and not surrender to the seductive ease of “easy,” generic AI solutions.
6. Which creative weakness does the regional industry persistently conceal, and what would you do if someone appointed you to “expose” it during 2026?
I would expose the false comfort zone built on numbers and data. The creative process cannot be fully quantified. If it could, our job wouldn’t exist. Various global trends and crises have pushed our industry toward that “safe” place, and for us in the eternally unstable Balkans, that illusion of safety in numbers seemed especially attractive. Today it is clear that this is a myth. Numbers are on the side of machines. What remains on our side is what is specific to the human species, that unique blend of emotion and reason. That is the space where authentic communication and true creativity emerge. Qualities that algorithms may imitate, but (at least for now) cannot possess.
Igor Kalaba, Director of Strategic Planning
7. Which common assumption about consumers did you have to “break with a hammer” in 2025 because it was no longer true?
That they are loyal.
“80% of revenue comes from 20% of the most loyal customers – we should focus on them.”
This isn’t exactly a new misconception, but what has long been proven still somehow doesn’t fully sink in: growth doesn’t come from heavy users, but from light users. In 2025 we also tried to shift the focus from retention to acquiring new customers, repeating like a mantra: “Growth doesn’t come from the same people loving us more, but from more people buying us at least once.”
8. If you had to predict one psychological shift in audiences in 2026 that will most change communication, what would it be, and why is it invisible until it happens?
Audiences are developing a subconscious defence mechanism against AI-generated content, which can also be defined as an aversion to perfection. People are no longer looking for polished aesthetics (because they are now cheap and accessible to everyone), but for some mistake, some small imperfection as proof that there are humans behind that piece of content, not robots. On the other hand, we in marketing still follow old standards of “quality.” While we polish campaigns to perfection, audiences mentally filter them as spam precisely because they are too perfect. The change is invisible because it doesn’t show in click numbers (since we’re already on sacred cows!), but in the complete absence of emotional response. People consume our content, but let’s not fool ourselves: that is neither engagement nor loyalty, it’s simply the path of least resistance.
Maja Desančić, Event Director
9. Which new skill, habit or ritual in the team this year could be labelled “born in the Adriatic industry,” something that exists nowhere else?
This year we could call it our “Adriatic work ritual,” meaning the constant way Aquarius Group functions as a unified group, because our offices are spread across the region (Banja Luka, Sarajevo, Podgorica, and this year also Zagreb and Belgrade). It emerged naturally from everyday work across multiple markets. Before an idea goes out to a client, we run it through several local perspectives so it is accurate in tone, context and the nuances that make a difference here.
That is something that, in our case, was “born” precisely in the Adriatic industry, because communication here is not measured only by a good concept, but also by a feel for the environment. We do not see that specificity as an obstacle, but as an advantage, since each campaign gets a “regional reality check,” while remaining consistent with one strategy and one Aquarius Group quality standard.
Vanja Kalaba, Client Lead
10. What is the most unexpected sentence you heard from a client this year, and how did it change your brief, campaign or relationship?
“Everything looks great, but let’s remove the part where we explain our idea and what we actually wanted to say.”
It’s not often you encounter a client who understands that audiences are smarter than briefs assume. Usually absolutely everything gets crammed into briefs, benefits, tradition, price, because clients fear consumers won’t understand if everything isn’t spelled out. That’s why this sentence was a rare permission and opportunity simply to be brave.
Final question for everyone
11. If someone offered you to start 2026 with a single “act of courage,” professional, creative or human, that would completely push you out of your comfort zone and move the industry a step forward… which act would you choose and why that one?
If we’re already fantasising: turn off the internet, mobile phones and CRMs in the first quarter, and give everyone wooden pencils and paper. Then let’s see.
