The Grand Prix comes at the end of the process. Before it come the brief, conversations, doubts, decisions that carry a certain degree of risk, and the moment when both the agency and the client have to decide how ready they are to believe in an idea that still exists only as a possibility. When ten years of award-winning campaigns are viewed from that perspective, what preceded them becomes more interesting than the trophy itself.
That was the basis of UEPS Grand Prix Talks, held yesterday in the packed Press Center of MTS Hall. Across two panels, some of the campaigns that won the highest recognitions in the local industry between 2015 and 2025 were presented, while the people who created them tried to reconstruct the decisions, relationships and circumstances from which they emerged.
Different years, clients and creative approaches did not produce a single recipe for a Grand Prix. Still, several common elements kept returning throughout the conversations: an agency-client relationship with enough trust for an idea to develop beyond what is expected, a willingness to step outside familiar patterns, and the consistency with which the initial idea is carried through the entire execution.
The first panel was moderated by Nataša Bojanić Brukner, Executive Director at Leo, and featured Jana Savić, Creative Director at McCann, Nebojša Krivokuća, Creative Director at Communis, Marija Trkulja, Creative Excellence Manager at Bambi, and Bogdan Španjević, owner of NextGame.
Through the campaigns Dobro jutro, džezveri from 2015, Jednakost dolazi iz kuće from 2021, Superhero from 2022 and Tvoje telo je umetničko delo from 2025, the panelists revisited different stages of the creative process and the relationships that enabled an idea to move from the first proposal to execution.
Summing up the discussion, Nataša Bojanić Brukner also presented comparative observations on work awarded at local festivals and work that wins recognition at Cannes Lions. The comparison opened a broader question about the criteria by which creativity is valued today locally and globally, as well as the position of the local industry within those changes.
The second part of the program was moderated by Đuro Radosavović, Creative Director at New Moment. Joining him in the discussion were Žarko Veljković, Creative Director at Jazavac i utorak, Suzana Đorđević, Director of the Hemofarm Foundation, Vladimir Mitrović, Creative Director at Ovation BBDO, and Nevena Balšić, Creative Director at Leo.
The campaigns Najvažniji poziv u životu from 2023, Munchmallow – priča za sebe from 2018, The One Book for Peace from 2017, Mame, dobro došle na svet from 2019 and Mreža najvažnijih influensera from 2024 were revisited before the audience.
Looking back also served as an opportunity to discuss what comes next. The participants shared their own expectations for the next decade of the creative industry, while their individual statements will later be published by UEPS on social media.
Grand Prix Talks also marked the beginning of a new advertising season for the association. UEPS announced that this year’s traditional competition will open in a few days, along with a new edition of Dan UEPS-a, the event through which the industry has been rounding off the business year for decades.
The association, which has existed for 66 years, placed this gathering within its long-term mission of connecting the professional community and raising quality standards in the industry. This time, that goal was not presented through a look at just one winning piece of work, but through ten years of ideas that show how much the ways we communicate can change, while trust, courage and quality of execution remain among the most important parts of the process.
