Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Domagoj Davidović, from the agency Švicarska (Switzerland), will chair this year’s jury for the MIXX Awards, a competition in digital which is taking place as part of the event Days of Communication in Rovinj (30 March – 2 April, 2107).
As we have not had a chance to write about Švicarska before, I took advantage of this conversation with Domagoj about Idea MIXX to learn some basic facts about the agency. And I was immediately caught in the trap. When he sent me the answers yesterday, he wrote at the end of his e-mail that he was sending greetings from Switzerland (Švicarska). I thanked him for his answers and mechanically wished him a pleasant stay in Switzerland. Only later did I realize where he was sending his greetings from – from the agency.
Media Marketing: Your agency is called Switzerland. Why Switzerland?
Domagoj Davidović: Switzerland embodies some very positive values that we wanted to have as an agency. Also, our agency wants to be small, to produce quality work, be reasonably famous and bring positive associations when people mention it – just like Switzerland. If we add that the agency was established by three partners, that we internally call ourselves cantons (Bonjour, I am the French canton), somehow it all fell into place. In addition, it is easy to remember and everyone wants to work with the Swiss, or go to a meeting in Switzerland – as long as we don’t issue them bills in Swiss francs.
Media Marketing: You say Švicarska is a small, independent agency, specializing in creative strategies and big results. What services do you offer your clients?
Domagoj Davidović: We like to say that we think like consultants, work as a studio, and deliver as an agency. This means that we combine a studious research approach with a less structured creative approach characteristic of a studio, and ultimately we deliver a workload and results that can measure up to the standards of much larger organizations.
Our primary services are strategy development and creative concepts. It’s less important to us whether we work on the set frameworks operationally in house, or with another agency, or in any other form of cooperation. Part of Swiss neutrality is flexible cooperation with other partners, either ours or the client’s. We are thus much more flexible, and we can quickly put together the appropriate team for each project. Clients come to us with the expectation of “turnkey” solutions, and they trust us to provide the best possible people for the project within the set strategy, either from the agency or from the market.
Media Marketing: Your campaigns are as precise as Swiss clockwork, your creative solutions as sweet as Swiss chocolate, but unlike Swiss cheese, your strategies have no holes. All this leads to success. In last year’s Days of Communication you were ranked among the TOP 5 Croatian agencies at Ideja X, and HUOJ’s Grand PRix also couldn’t do without you. How much do these successes mean to you?
Domagoj Davidović: Although we like to say we don’t care about awards, they are actually quite important, because they show that someone else has recognized all the energy and effort invested in the campaigns that we do. In a practical sense, awards have meant a lot to us because we won some practically in the first year of our active work and that gave us an impetus for further work. It was a confirmation that we were on the right track with this crazy idea of an agency that doesn’t want to be an agency, and it brought us a dose of recognition in the market.
With clients we try to have a relaxed and informal (but still very direct) approach and communication, so I’m sometimes afraid they might think that we don’t know what we’re doing. Awards from the industry help to assure them that they are in good hands, and that to some extent we do know what we’re doing.
Media Marketing: This year you are presiding over the jury for Ideja X. As jury president you will give guidelines to the other jury members on what to consider when judging the entries. What kind of directions will you give them?
Domagoj Davidović: This year I have the role of president of the jury, but I’ve been with MIXX for a long time now. At its first award ceremony organized in Croatia I won my first MIXX awards with the agency I was with back then. Since then I’ve been a member of the jury several times. So I think that this year I’ve “closed the full circle” having gained some experience that I can convey and share with this year’s jury. Since this year’s jury is special in that it is composed of digital seniors and juniors, I expect that we will have interesting takes on the entries, and on what digital is today. I’m really looking forward to this meeting of digital experts of the old and new school. The guidelines will be clear and in accordance with the rules of the MIXX awards, which is that every entry is scrutinized through measured parameters: strategy, execution, creativity and results, and not through one’s own previous experience with the campaign. I think this separation of the subjective from the objective is the hardest part for digital experts who follow the scene, very probably know all the entries beforehand, and already have an opinion or attitude about them.
Media Marketing: How would you rate the market of digital marketing in Croatia? Is digital present enough in advertising campaigns?
Domagoj Davidović: The market of digital marketing sounds very sectarian, so I prefer to look at it as the tendency to put marketing investment into digital channels. In this context, I am glad to see that we are finally outgrowing the perception of digital channels exclusively as “cheaper options to go for, because there’s no budget for TV.” The perception of digital channels has changed a lot and now it’s no longer an alternative, but a first choice for the realization of certain communications and business goals. Digital investments are taken seriously, and this has led to serious changes in the manner of doing business, internal structure and organization of clients and agencies, and it also creates the need for new specializations. Judging from what we’ve seen at the beginning of this year, it seems to me that this serious understanding will be accompanied by serious investments and further growth in digital channels this year.
Media Marketing: Do you have any information on how it’s going with the entries, and could you send a message to Croatian agencies and advertisers as to why they should register their works for Ideja MIXX?
Domagoj Davidović: To refer to the previous question – digital is to be taken seriously, to be invested in and seriously worked on. This is evident in the entries. For me there is no doubt that MIXX are “THE” awards for anyone engaged in Digital. An award that values works equally for their creativity and results, and for the idea and execution, is very special and particularly valuable.
To win it is a special feeling of acknowledgment, that you have really created an outstanding work that has passed all the strict criteria of selection and the judgment of an experienced jury, so I encourage everyone to enter the contest and try to experience that feeling.