By: Naira Čamdžić i Isidora Mandić
We followed the Branding Conference On Thursday, the biggest event in the marketing industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and now we’re here to share our impressions. This year’s Branding Conference, organized by the agency Via Media, was the 13th edition, and the theme was ‘Brand New Circus,’ inspired by the circus as a metaphor for the modern world.
Did they live up to expectations? We can safely say that they surpassed them and we can’t wait for the next one.
It was opened by Haris Mujanović, director of Via Media and the first jury representative of Bosnia and Hercegovina at Cannes Lions, who in his speech touched on the reasons behind the theme. He emphasized that today we live in a world many rightly call a circus.
‘But not the entertaining kind,’ he added, ‘rather a global, chaotic, and often inhumane one’. What role does our industry play here? Haris points out that in such a world, brands, agencies, and creators try to remain relevant. But if anyone knows how to find meaning in chaos, it’s people in the creative industry.
The first speaker of the conference was Ravid Kuperberg, partner and trainer at Mindscapes, with his talk ‘Where Circus, Creativity and Productivity Meet.’ How do you connect the internal variables controlled by the brand with the external factors coming from outside? Through interesting practical examples, he showed how meaning can be extracted from seemingly unrelated elements, and how from that emerges an idea that truly clicks.
Next on stage was Maurizio Tozzini, creative director at Dentsu Creative Italy agency. In his talk ‘Creative Aerodynamics: Flight Manual for Brands in Modern Times,’ he explained how brands can stay relevant in today’s advertising market.
‘Storytelling is one of the deepest human needs,’ Maurizio says, and brands must tell and become that story.
Ali Rez, a multiple award-winning creative leader with rich international experience and Chief Creative Officer at Impact BBDO for the entire Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan region, was the third speaker at the conference. On stage, he shared campaigns that consciously broke the rules of the game and demonstrated courage to be different. He believes this is exactly the approach the industry needs today. As he said himself: ‘It’s not about making something beautiful, but about how you made it beautiful.’
Amrita Lal, Senior Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn, delivered a presentation on how to build a personal brand. How to stand out and recognize your strengths and skills? Amrita covered this in her segment titled ‘Unmasking the Main Act: Building a Personal Brand in a World of Illusion’.
The conference was closed by Lazar Sakan, director of New Moment, the most awarded advertising agency in the Balkans, with several Cannes Lions awards behind it. What is working in advertising like, in his opinion? Roughly, every day is a new match, and planning is almost impossible. Those present also enjoyed a little reminder of the past and some of the greatest advertisements of the former Yugoslavia. As the conference’s final speaker, Lazar showed and proved to us that the regional creative scene is no outsider, it has a voice, talent, and results.
The 13th Branding Conference reminded us that marketing, in a world full of noise, still has the power to spark ideas, change perceptions, and bring meaning to chaos. Because even when everything seems like a circus – the true creatives know how to stay on the tightrope. We are proud to have such inspiring events in our region.
