Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
In fifteen days, Belgrade’s Sava Center will host the twentieth consecutive mts Night of the Ad Eaters. An organizationally and logistically very demanding and complex project is growing up year by year, and today it is an important central event of the Serbian advertising scene.
Since the first day, standing behind the Night of the Ad Eaters are Goga Grubješić and Aleksandar Đorđević, managers of SuperStar Worldwide which for twenty years now organizes this big festival of the advertising industry. Goga and Alex answered a few questions on the occasion of the jubilee Night of the Ad Eaters.
Media Marketing: For twenty years now you are succeeding to keep a huge project like the Night of the Ad Eaters in top form. How do you do it? Passion for ads, passion to make great entertainment, good business, money, or something else?
Aleksandar Đorđević: Night of the Ad Eaters, as a phenomenon in our region, for 20 years now is primarily the result of the great enthusiasm of the organizers in the mix with the top selection of the world’s advertising, with which Cinematheque JMB each year brings joy to hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world, and, of course, with great help from the audience who for generations now accepts this event as their own, as a beloved night that every year allows them to let their imagination run wild and to feel that they are part of the world through gems of the world’s creativity, to feel that they are a part of a global cosmopolitan audience.
Of course, the passion for good entertainment, humor and unexpected situations, is something that has always adorned us, as organizers. As for business, this is certainly a nice project that lasts for decades here, where the financial side largely depends on sponsors and partners and their needs and interests that we, as organizers, succeed in generating each year. We are happy that we can manage an event for so long, and the earnings are really secondary.
Media Marketing: How did it all start? How did you come up with the idea to organize the Night of the Ad Eaters?
Goga Grubješić: As all true loves happen by accident, so we came in contact with the Ad Eaters “by accident”. It was back in 1996. It was a time without the Internet, only three TV channels, during the sanctions. However, there was a safe haven from these gray days for most people, and it was culture. I ran into my friend Slavica Ćeranić, who then lived in Milan. Seeing what I do for living, she told me: “Hey, there’s a great show La Notte di Publivori, which I saw in Milan. They show the best ads for a whole evening.” I was already hooked on that sentence … the rest is all clear. I remember that no one believed me that a program consisting of only advertisements can fill the Sava Center, but regardless of the very limited possibility of advertising at the time, the audience has shown that it’s not true that they dislike ads, but only that they dislike bad ads. Night of the Ad Eaters is a show of the best commercials from around the world, and that’s why for 20 years now it’s been packing the Sava Center.
Media Marketing: When you look back at the previous 19 years, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What do you remember with fondness?
Aleksandar Đorđević: Our favorite is the change of generations. Some have grown up, others matured, third only now develop the interest for Ad Eaters, and the age difference between each of these groups is ten years. We also remember the important segments in our history that we somehow indirectly commemorated in the Ad Eaters. The abolition of EU visas for travel, campaign take a bill from the Ministry of Finance, the memorable visits of our great artists and athletes Novak Đoković, Jelena Janković, Stefan Milenković, Sale Đorđević, water polo players, swimmers, etc. There are many significant events that were highlighted during the Night of Ad Eaters, thus contributing to the success of many humanitarian campaigns, and above all we are happy that through the Night of the Ad Eaters, Serbian creativity also got the opportunity to travel around the world, and so on.
Media Marketing: In two decades you have developed very friendly relations with Jean Marie Bursicot. There are even plans for moving his Cinematheque from Paris to Belgrade. Where does this idea stand currently?
Goga Grubješić: Yes. It’s true. Through 20 years of working with Jean Marie Boursicot, the founder and owner of the largest ad cinematheque in the world, which bears his name, we have developed a friendship. He first came to Belgrade in 1996, and brought 2000 condoms, so we could have a sampling for the audience, because we lived in the time of sanctions and foreign companies were forbidden to support any event. We are always his guests at the Paris Nights, at the famous La Notte di Publivori, from where this show went into the world in 1981. He says that he has such a close relationship only with us and partners in Mexico. We credit that to Belgrade – audience that is cosmopolitan, but which also kept the local charm. We also credit that to the local and regional creatives whose ads we collected and sent to Paris, in order to have a chance to be part of a world tour of Nights of the Ad Eaters. And every year they succeeded in that. Jean Marie has won the Belgrade audience, and Belgrade won him. So, the idea came about cooperation of the Yugoslav Cinematheque and the Cinematheque Jean Marie Boursicot, so the oldest ads were exchanged, that these two institutions kept in their archives, and then the ideas were exchanged about the possibility of moving the JMB cinematheque to Belgrade. This is not a quick process, it means moving and storing over a million commercials on tape, but there is work being done on that, which makes us as the organizers of this event particularly happy.
Media Marketing: The best ad you’ve seen at the Night of the Ad Eaters so far?
Aleksandar Đorđević: There were really a lot of memorable campaigns and commercials, but what I love most is the power of advertising to evoke emotion. I remember how I felt when we watched a commercial for Telekom, directed by Miša Terzić. Those were sincere emotions.
Media Marketing: Whom would you thank especially for the collaboration so far?
Goga Grubješić: First of all it would be Jean Marie Boursicot, who granted us the license for his show after our first contact in ’96. Then, the audience – aficionados of the world and domestic creativity, these infallible critics, who used whistles to show disapproval or approval of everything that was served on the stage and screen of the Sava Center. We would thank the many sponsors who’s support and original promotions gave immeasurable contribution to the party, which is an inseparable part of the Night of the Ad Eaters. We would thank Tref, which was our first sponsor back in ’96, then Cocta, Smoki, Coca-Cola, Grand Kafa, Chipsy, Loto, Master Card, the Don Café, Stars chewing gums, Uniqa insurance… and many others. Thank you to this year’s sponsors: Plazma Mini-Mini, Sensation, Idea mega market, Frikom, Avon. Thank you to numerous media sponsors without whom everything we do would not be possible. Some of them have been with us since the beginning – TV Pink, RTS, Blic – ad some joined in the years when they started operating in Serbia, such as the TV Prva, Radio Naxi. Thank you to Tourist organization of Belgrade, which is also our valued partner, and everyone else I haven’t mentioned here. And a special thanks goes to one company, a true Friend of the Night of Ad Eaters, which is a constant part of the event, and which recognized creativity as the essence of communication, and that’s mts and Telekom Serbia.
Media Marketing: What will this year’s Night bring us?
Aleksandar Đorđević: This year’s mts Night of the Ad Eaters as usually offers the best of the global production and advertising industry through spectacular, exotic, and fun commercials that leave no one indifferent. This year’s edition of mts Night of the Ad Eaters is dedicated to the planet and ecology. Advertisers acknowledge this topic by sending a strong message and stunning images of nature.
Goga Grubješić: The audience already knows that the curator of the program Jean Marie Boursicot, besides the best of advertising, also loves kitsch, with aim to give us extra laughs! So we’ll see how the Chinese are able to come up with the best and worst in terms advertising. UK is always at the forefront of creativity! You will see very touching commercials in which the main actors are our pets, who are a bridge between people who don’t understand each other. There will also be music. Since the beginning of the program of Night of the Ad Eaters, and of course throughout the whole program, music gives rhythm to the Nights!
Famous stars from commercials will again be here. We’ll talk about the program in one of your next issues. Basically, it will be, as before, a several-hours long advertising treat! Sharpen up for the perfect screening party and we’ll see you at the mts Night of the Ad Eaters on 18 November at 20.30h in Sava Center! Tickets for this screening party, thanks to the sponsors, are only 700 dinars (€5.7) and can be purchased at the Sava Center box office, Eventim and Gigx tix.