Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Dejan Letić
Foto: Dejan Nedić
Dejan Nedić, CEO and owner of the Belgrade agency FCB Afirma, is a man who says he never wanted to be a manager, ie a person who has to have the last word, because he believes that such a relationship in advertising is simply not possible. This member of the Serbian Association of Managers and Nordic Business Alliance adds: “Doctors always say that the brain is the least explored place in the whole world, and advertising deals with exactly that – the human brain.”
Media Marketing: Last year your company marked two decades of existence. It’s an achievement worthy of respect, especially knowing what those two decades were like. So as not to dwell too much in the past, let’s limit the question to 2015 alone – how satisfied were you with that year?
Dejan Nedić: Theangle from which you view things always determines your perspective. Just as the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
As I perceive a half-full glass as a space of possibilities, and not as a locked chest of missed opportunities, I’m bound to choose the good rather than the bad memories from the year behind me.
Of course you can always do better. I believe that this won’t be the first time I say this, but if it weren’t true it would mean that we have reached the end. It would mean that we have already said and done everything, that we are putting a period on our ambitions, ideas and plans. And that is not is what I am at all. Let someone else put a period on it, I will always add two more – to turn it into three dots. I’ll always do that, to make it clear that the search for something better, more exciting, more original, closer to perfection, and yet very human, continues.
I will remember the previous year for the strengthening of ties – within both the global and regional network that we are creating, as well as the strengthening of relations with long-term clients. I will remember it for our international awards and our more decisive and concrete plans to reach even the brightest ones. I will remember it, of course, just like many previous years, for the extraordinary people that surround me, because no success would have been possible without their exciting energy and brilliant ideas that permeate every day in the creation of something new.
Media Marketing: Now that you have entered the third decade of agency life, and after everything you’ve experienced in this profession, could we ask you about your vision of the future? What kind of 2016 do you expect, both in the agency and on the level of the market at large?
Dejan Nedić: If the weather forecast tells you that it will rain tomorrow, you won’t sit at home all day if you need to go out. You will put on waterproof shoes and bring an umbrella.
It’s the same with circumstances. It’s up to us to adjust to them to whatever extent necessary, and to change them in a significant way (at least to the best of our abilities). We don’t need to appeal for better business conditions, we need to organize within the industry and do our best to influence them. The same is with our relationship with clients: just as we need to constantly educate ourselves, so too must those relationships be continually improved. That is the only way to achieve mutual benefit both in business and in the creative sense.
I’m armed with optimism, but I ‘m still not mad enough to dare to judge the future, no matter how near. I am also not endowed with the “clairvoyance” of TV fortunetellers, so I will leave it to time to give its judgment. It’s up to us, in the agency and the industry as a whole, to be active participants in our time, not just passive observers and victims of fate.
Media Marketing: We know that every profession, to a greater or lesser degree, depends on its environment. How much is advertising in Serbia susceptible to the tectonic social shifts?
Dejan Nedić: Perhaps more than other industries. Advertising is the first to feel the tightening of the belt, which I think is a big mistake, because it just shows that here, even after so many years, there is still no mature awareness of the importance of proper marketing communications. Advertising costs are not seen as an investment, but only as an expense. And completely unnecessary at that. It would be useful for us all to make a distinction between savings and an investment in overcoming difficulties. In a crisis, our profession is not part of the problem, it’s part of the solution.
Media Marketing: Collaboration with neighboring states is tremendously important in any business. What are your plans and goals in terms of the region?
Dejan Nedić: Big. FCB Afirma is already a significant player in the regional framework, with agencies in Belgrade, Zagreb, Banja Luka and Tirana. We don’t line up cities just so we can create a more imposing figure. We are trying to develop organically and thoroughly in each of the markets in which we enter. None of these agencies was opened rashly, overnight, or without serious analysis, planning, months of work on the development strategy and with at least a few customers in sight. In the future, we expect more news in this field, but I would keep this information tight until things come to fruition. It’s not because of a jinx, but to keep at least some element of surprise.
Media Marketing: Afirma is part of the second oldest network of advertising firms in the world, Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), which has over 120 agencies in more than 80 countries. What are the benefits of membership in a worldwide creative community? Does this big global table of ideas make space for local tastes, or does everything have to be adjusted to a universal palate?
Dejan Nedić: I’m immensely glad that you’ve asked this question, because it touches on the very essence of the global network that we are part of.
Two years ago, FCB decided to change its visual identity and to take a new course, which I would call the “unity of diversity”. The logo contains “all the colors of the world”, ie colors that are on the flags of even the smallest states on the planet. Such a logo, in addition to the cheerfulness of all those colors, is meant to symbolically deliver a message about the specifics and the local colors that actually make our world wonderful. With the help of its new visual identity, FCB wanted to say NO! to the worst side of globalization: the production of the same. They wanted to escape uniformity and impersonality.
Today, day by day, FCB is becoming a more firmly connected global network of local agencies in which diversity is not fostered only on paper. It’s fed and stimulated. It’s our duty to be what we actually are, not those traits we desire. Authenticity is what is valued, not imitation. The more diversity in the network, the more the possibility to produce something new and valuable at the highest international level.
Media Marketing: In the end, let’s go back to the beginning of our story. In the introductory part you said that: “Doctors always say that the brain is the least explored place in the whole world, and advertising deals with exactly that – the human brain.” What did you mean by that?
Dejan Nedić: The meaning of this message is that our job is much harder than it looks. We have to dig into the secrets of the least explored organ in the human body. But, despite this, or precisely because of it, our job is exciting and wonderful.
As for the “dealing with the human brain,” I want to immediately dispel the Orwellian tone and to clarify what this is about. It’s not at all about playing with the human brain, of mastering it in a hypnotic sense. It’s not about manipulation … It’s mainly about understanding it, understanding the way in which it works. Our profession is based on human needs and desires, on the mechanisms of human behavior. Any kind of product can have all the prerequisites to be successful in the market, but if you don’t identify clearly for whom it is intended, and how this group of people lives, works and thinks, you will not be able to place it in the spot it deserves. The language of communication (not only in the linguistic sense) is therefore incredibly important, as is its fluidity. What you learn today, already becomes unusable tomorrow. The world is changing faster and faster, ever more intensely. Therefore, it’s important to be constantly vigilant, aware of the world around you, explore it again and again. This is something that will help us not only in the creation of effective and creative campaigns, it will also help us when the work lights go out, to better cope with our own lives.