Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
When Špela Oblak left Luna TBWA in the middle of last year after 14 years with the agency, she was succeeded by Dali Bungič. For those who know Luna that was no surprise. It was a logical career development path for Dali in the agency. There, she forged her skills on heavyweight projects and demonstrated her abundant talent for the advertising business. Eight months after she took over the position of CEO, we spoke with Dali Bungič about Luna, her experiences, the agency culture – which she highlights as Luna’s major competitive advantage, women in the communications industry and the Slovenian advertising market.
Media Marketing: You came to Luna more than 15 years ago. How did your career progress from junior project leader to CEO?
Dali Bungič: When I look back it seems to me that my path was quite natural, although it was not very common. The very fact that it’s my seventeenth year in Luna is not a common occurrence. I believe that a person needs some luck in life, just as I believe that I had a lot of luck at key moments. I owe a debt of gratitude for the growth of my successful career above all to my exceptional mentors – Jure Pahor, Romana Dernovšek and Špela Levičnik Oblak. A very important role in my path was also played by my clients, the kind of clients you can only wish for as a junior. During my early years in the agency I worked on projects for the biggest Slovenian advertisers: Triglav Insurance, Petrol, Ljubljanske mlekarne, Si.mobil and Nissan. Working for the most respected brands on large projects, with highly capable people, is what most contributed to my career. Throughout all this time a very important role was also played by Janez Rakušček, who has been my support and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for many years now.
Media Marketing: You succeeded Špela Oblak, who had been leading Luna for 14 years. What has changed for you in these last eight months, except for greater responsibility?
Dali Bungič: Changes are also happening in the TBWA network. So together – as a team of over 12,000 people – we are introducing the DISRUPTION® philosophy, and we have begun to cooperate more closely. Over the last couple of months we have used a new tool that helps us with internal communications, Facebook Workplace, which enables easy and quick transfer of knowledge, experience, current examples, trends and, of course, mistakes. So we learn from each other, which helps us towards an even better future.
Eight months is a short period, but there are many new developments in various areas. New projects, new goals, a number of new clients and associates, and a new visual identity. But the most important things are yet to come :)
Media Marketing: On Luna’s website you wrote that Luna is a safe place for you, that it’s got a culture that’s hard to explain in words, but can easily be felt. What kind of culture are you describing?
Dali Bungič: Our culture is our significant competitive advantage, but it’s also very fragile, so it’s difficult to explain it. It is very important for us in Luna, and as a company we attach great importance to it. I believe that you can learn a lot of things, but if someone doesn’t suit us, or we don’t suit them, working together is not possible. Part of our agency’s work has always been informal socializing – the charm and the art of this is that it isn’t something that’s forced, we all contribute to that culture spontaneously. The good foundations of this are thanks to our founder, Mitja Milavec, who is the embodiment of that culture.
Media Marketing: How much does Luna’s culture fit into the Slovenian advertising space, or are you nurturing something completely special which can be seen and felt as soon as one enters your building? Even employees’ pets have their place at the Agency.
Dali Bungič: A relaxed culture is something that is generally common in advertising. But in our case relaxation also means vulnerability. We could call it a kind of intense co-existence – you feel a responsibility towards your co-worker as a person, with all their personal joys and sorrows, and when you live so intensely side by side, you feel responsible for what is going on around you. Because you are aware that the culture is co-created by every individual, renewed every day. On the surface, our culture involves fun games such as table tennis in the middle of the creative department, summer picnics in our sunny garden, celebrating success in front of the fireplace and a relaxed atmosphere with six dogs that often keep us company. But its foundations go much deeper, because it draws its strength from strong values: trust, professionalism, respect and transparent business.
A part of this culture – the person – is not just our coworkers, but everyone we come in contact with and build a relationship with. We build mutual respect with everyone and we expect it from everyone in the “chain” – from the client to the implementers. We nurture something special, which, as our new associates say, one quickly gets used to.
Media Marketing: How would you assess the advertising scene in Slovenia today? Are things going forward? Is the industry coming out of the years of crisis?
Dali Bungič: I think that the crisis of decision making and accountability in our industry is greater than the economic and financial crisis. Many decisions are made primarily on the basis of who will be to blame if something is wrong. That’s why people often opt for safe decisions. I don’t mean just the clients, but all of us, because making safe decisions is easier. The question is for whom is this safe, and where do these “safe” decisions lead us.
But there are exceptions, and I’m happy that among them are our clients, who allocate part of their annual budgets for test projects and new technologies. That fills me with optimism.
Media Marketing: Luna has a lot of work on, and you got some new clients, which is creating the need for new hires. How is the situation with staff in Slovenia? Are young people willing to work in advertising, or are the main sources of staff other agencies?
Dali Bungič: People who come to us from other agencies are the exception rather than the rule. It’s not that we wouldn’t hire them, not at all, but people often start their career in Luna, take to it, and stay here for a long time. One of our special characteristics is also the fact that all our leaders and project directors started their professional careers in Luna, back when they were students. Today they are the pillars of the agency, and they raise the new generations.
We take on young people who are interested in working for an agency with joy; we cooperate closely with universities and young people and we have many projects planned – this is an important topic for the future for us. We are aware that the best talents choose their employer, not the other way around. I have a feeling that the generations to come will be even more stringent in their expectations. Social security and foosball are not enough for them.
Media Marketing: What would you highlight as current good news from Luna? A new campaign, new client, new hire…
Dali Bungič: The beginning of 2017 was very intense. There are some nice regional projects in the making, and a lot things will be happening in Digital. Although we have offered Digital as a part of our services up to now, we can safely say that in 2017 we will become recognized as specialists in the field. At the beginning of the year we took over the entire digital communication business for a large client. We will soon be able to talk a little more about it.
Media Marketing: Next month we intend to launch the Woman.Comm portal, dedicated to women in the communications industry in the Adriatic region. How do you, as a woman, see the position of women in the regional communications industry? Are there enough of you?
Dali Bungič: This is a topic that I usually evade, because I’ve changed my opinion about it several times already. On the one hand, I don’t have the feeling that I’m treated differently in our business; in our Adriatic group (not just in Luna but also in our media section), we women are in the vast majority. There are many women in the region as well, both in agencies and in the communications departments of companies. On the other hand, it’s true that we don’t encounter women in leadership positions on the client side and on the boards of companies that often; there are also fewer in the position of creative directors. It’s not only a problem in our region, but a problem faced by the entire world. The truth is that Luna can boast about this area as well, because a large part of women creative directors in Slovenia came from our ranks. For us that’s an honor, a matter of pride and even an accolade, as it tells us that we are doing good things.
Media Marketing: Do you perhaps have a message for your female colleagues?
Dali Bungič: I recently spoke with two creative directors who, although they come from different parts of Europe, agreed with the fact that we women are too obsessed with playing it safe. We want to be sure in advance that we are making the right decision. Men only deal with the problems that await them on a new, higher level when they get there, while women start doing this much earlier. Although I don’t want to generalize, I think we women really do burden ourselves more with the potential of failure. The advice that I got was: relax! :)
Media Marketing: It’s customary to ask in the end about your plans – at least the short-term ones that relate to this year. What are Luna’s plans?
Dali Bungič: This year we are continuing with the implementation of a clear strategy – additional focus on strategic planning, business consulting and the interweaving of platforms, and a strong emphasis will still be on Digital.
Our brands are increasingly visible throughout the Adriatic region, which is a great challenge and opportunity.
We also collaborate a lot with other TBWA agencies. They help us, we help them. And that brings us to the fact that we are becoming even stronger partners. We are involved in the detection of actual events daily, the so-called triggers, and the opportunities for the introduction of pop culture in the daily communication of brands. The results of daily monitoring of events are part of a joint project called TBWA backslash (www.instagram.com/tbwabackslash), which provides everyone who follows it with a daily dose of the current news and trends that inspire us.