Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Bruketa&Žinić OM have set their main goal for the year 2016 – to significantly strengthen their integrated communication teams because practice has shown it works best if a digital specialist sits with a creative and a planner at the same table, in order to optimize communications in real time. Market communications are a tennis match where speed, skill and creativity are becoming the wining factor. They began the year with a competition for people with “digital” pedigree.
Our interviewees are Davor Bruketa and Nikola Žinić. They talk about how they adapt the agency to the times and the changes it brings, and how a merger of online and offline is the only way to create efficient market communications.
Media Marketing: Until yesterday, walls were being built between the digital and ‘other’ departments at agencies. Is it time to bring down those walls?
Nikola Žinić: There’s the news circulating these days that Adam&Eve/DDB decided to completely drop the prefix digital from all official agency titles, claiming that such labels in marketing are obsolete. I absolutely agree. Digital professionals should be part of an integrated marketing team participating together and on equal footing with the others in agency processes, from research, analysis, preparation of briefs to creative cross-channel execution.
Davor Bruketa: An agency can’t be considered an agency today if it’s not digital. Everything we offer in agencies today is observed from the digital aspect, because sooner or later everything ends up online. But that’s just part of our business. So, there is no digital and non-digital communication, there is only efficient communication.
Media Marketing: A couple of months ago at a conference in Sarajevo I listened to Google’s regional manager, who said: “Print and TV media? But that doesn’t exist anymore! What? They haven’t told you yet?” Will the digital lobby hold fire or will they continue to claim that ‘classic’ media no longer exist? And should they be ‘killed’ at all, because isn’t digital just another media channel?
Nikola Žinić: Such opinions are completely misguided in today’s environment, when consumers are present everywhere. It all depends on your goal and your budget. For a brand, it’s irrelevant whether they have digital marketing or not, but whether their marketing is devised for the digital era. It means that they have to bear in mind the digital habits of their target group, but they shouldn’t neglect the other things.
Media Marketing: How much of digital will there be in B&Ž’s campaigns this year?
Davor Bruketa: For a long time now we have been making an effort for our projects to really utilize all that is offered by the communications landscape. Sometimes we are more successful, and sometimes less. Our main goal this year is to considerably strengthen our integrated marketing teams, the first of their kind in Croatia as far as we know. We currently have open competitions for all digital specialists, from UX/UI designers and developers, to account managers and copywriters with experience in digital… They will have the chance to work on integrated “360” projects together with people who have extensive experience in marketing, branding, design, consumer psychology, product design and sales space concept. We approach every brief in an integrated manner.
Media Marketing: Are clients ready for that?
Nikola Žinić: Clients are less and less willing to spend their time coordinating countless specialized agencies. Such organization is an orchestra out of tune. The optimization is too slow. Experimentation is very limited. We, as an agency, can no longer guarantee maximum efficiency of communication without an integrated approach. The thing is that brands can lose time and money if they don’t think integrated. Today, communications teams want to improve their solutions according to the reactions of the target audience, and they want it now. Practice has shown that the optimum solution is if the digital specialist sits with the creative director and the strategic planner at the same table. Market communications are a tennis match where speed, skill and creativity are becoming the winning factor.
Media Marketing: Most agencies have so far mostly sold their clients technologies. Clients bought them without knowing what it is they are actually buying. Is the situation changing in this field as well? Will content finally become the most important factor, or at least as important as the technologies?
Davor Bruketa: Content always has been and always will be important, but the most important thing is to reach a person at the moment when they are interested in something and when they are more susceptible to certain content. The client actually doesn’t care how we did something, but whether we helped them in solving their problem. Whether technology will help us in this or not is completely up to us.
Media Marketing: The app you created for the Zagreb Tourist Board was declared the most innovative tourist app this year in Paris. Will we soon see something similar from your production lines?
Nikola Žinić: The Zagreb Be There app is constantly developing and we are already working on some innovations. Apart from the awards for this application, our good thinking has also been confirmed by the numerous awards for the integrated campaign Time Vault and the award for the best web campaign Future in Adris. Both campaigns are actually a good example of integration. Although, of course, there is still a lot of room for improvement. We have also just finished a project for Konzum Click. We are already developing several interesting projects in this direction, which, I hope, will be successfully realized.
Media Marketing: You are constantly looking for new staff. Are there any? Is it possible to find young people who, in addition to knowledge, also have the passion for the agency business?
Nikola Žinić: Young people go wherever they believe is best for them. Jobs today are not tied to a physical location, and some things you can actually do anywhere. Agencies should think like states, to be competitive not only in regard to clients, but talents as well. I believe that young creatives can quickly learn the agency trade, and everything that accompanies it, on a wide variety of brands, big and small – from those from the isle of Brač, which they want to communicate to the entire world, to multinational companies that want to be important both on Brač and in Vienna.
Davor Bruketa: Our pond has always been too small. That’s why today we have offices in Vienna, Belgrade and Baku as well. But actually borders no longer exist. The whole world is a playground, both in the sense of clients and talents. There are still too few young, but also older, people, who have the balls for global challenges, but there are really fantastic individuals who see themselves, their knowledge and their skills in the global context.
