Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
After the crisis years, advertising industry is beginning to live better days. An example of this is the agency Bruketa & Žinić OM which last year worked on markets from Luxembourg to China, won new customers and attracted talents worldwide.
About the past year, and the opportunities that come with the year 2017, we spoke with Davor Bruketa and Nikola Žinić, founders of the agency, who shared for Media Marketing a valuable advice on how to attract young talents in the industry.
Media Marketing: It’s somehow logical to start the conversation with the last year. How was it for the agency Bruketa&Žinić OM? As far as I’ve seen, you were quite present in Croatia and Europe, but also in the Far East.
Davor Bruketa: You could say that we were everywhere – in Europe, Africa, India all the way to China, thanks to our Luxembourg client Landewick and the Indian client Godfrey Phillips, both from the tobacco industry. They invited us to collaborate on the basis of our experience. To work with colleagues on the other side of the world was something new and exciting for us.
Nikola Žinić: The year was good so we recorded increase that was on par with the best years before the crisis. We grew the most in the digital segment, as our digital team is working with several major clients such as Addiko Bank, for which we cover the entire digital in multiple markets. Here’s our report for last year.
Media Marketing: In the last year you have attracted several big clients: Addiko Bank, VIPnet… Whose trust have you won?
Davor Bruketa: We have collaborated with Addiko bank the entire year. One entire team was working only on the launch of this new brand in five markets and has continued the work on the entire communication. Most importantly, our joint work has borne good sales results. For VIPnet there’s also one dedicated team that works only on their brands. We have already launched several integrated campaigns. We also won quite a big pitch in Vienna for Cappy owned by The Coca-Cola Company, for which we are working on the overall market in Central and Eastern Europe. Another new client is Žito, for which we are working on the entire 360 communication for a new great brand Dobro. A lot of ham has been devoured in order to reach the best solutions.
Nikola Žinić: We also launched two new projects, or rather services. Design Thinking Croatia is a joint project with Sense Consulting, through which we encourage companies to develop innovative products or internal innovation culture. This is a brand new challenge and a pleasant experience for us – to influence the products themselves, and not just their communication. Our team has been engaged in Vienna in the launch of Startaparat – a new company that wants to help launch startups from around the region. Here we continue working with the partner Netural, as well with the well-known Austrian business angel Selma Prodanović. We are already working with several of them.
Media Marketing: Davor, last year was especially dynamic for you as you took over the lead in HURA. How big of a burden was this for you, given all that was happening in the business expansion of the agency Bruketa&Žinić OM and other agencies that are part of your group?
Davor Bruketa: HURA is a well-oiled mechanism led by Dunja Ivana Ballon which makes my engagement possible. In 2016 we had the record breaking Days of Communication in terms of the number of participants, and the new concept of BalCannes had attracted a record number of agencies and advertisers. The goal of this management is to bring together all stakeholders in the industry because our landscape is changing and there are a lot more agencies working on the integrated communication solutions. We want to empower the agencies to find their way to third markets, because a lot of Croatian agencies are already exporting their services to Western Europe and the United States, so we believe that there is room here for growth of the whole industry, and therefore as an association we are finding ways to encourage this growth and to share knowledge.
Media Marketing: From the vantage point of the president of association of agencies for market communication you have an excellent overview of the market. How was last year for advertising and communications industry in Croatia in general?
Davor Bruketa: All parameters show growth, especially in digital advertising, where you can clearly see the results and opportunities that this channel offers us.
Media Marketing: Nikola, has the increased volume of business in the last year led to new hiring in creative teams, and how do you solve the issue of hiring young creative if we know that they aren’t really interested in working for advertising agencies?
Nikola Žinić: A lot of new creatives and other experts came to the agency, especially in digital, and we plan additional hiring, with some vacancies already open. We regularly hear from young creatives from around the world who want to come and gain work experience with us. Thus, over the past year, at Zavrtnica 17 in Zagreb we had five Americans, one Estonian and two Spaniards, of whom one was eventually hired full time. It’s important for young creatives to come to places where they can work on creative and inspiring projects, and we strive to that and thus attract young people. Creativity has always been the main tool for effective solutions, which results in interesting projects that attract new colleagues.
Media Marketing: This year, 2017, by all indications should be good for advertising. What do you expect? Will you be even more successful?
Nikola Žinić: All indicators suggest that this year should be better than 2016. Our goal is of course to further strengthen the new accounts on which we started working in 2016. For some time now our absolute focus is to provide complete solutions and we expect further integration of all parts of the communication process in the direction of one-stop-shop offer. For the same reason we will continue to invest in knowledge, skills and growth of the digital department, but the ideas were and still are our main product, as well as how to use them to address the challenges for the client. We believe that part of communications solutions is entering into design of products and services, and we will continue to work on developing new creative tools that will make us more efficient even in this sense.
Media Marketing: Davor, how do you as President of HURA see this year? What will be the most important thing in HURA’s activities?
Davor Bruketa: Our long-term goals are still the same – gathering all who are working in the area of market communications, then export, promotion of professional standards and stronger connections with other professional organizations from the region. HURA this year has 10 new members, and we believe that this is just the beginning in really connecting the entire market and finding a common denominator for all actors in the market, so we could join forces in promoting the interests of the industry.