Photo: Žarko Sakan at FuckUp Night
After the successful first edition of the Advertising Fail Stories FuckUp Night, which was held in November last year, professionals from the advertising industry came together for the second time to sincerely share their personal and agency failures in front of the audience at the Playground Innovation Center which was once again packed to capacity.
Žarko Sakan from the New Moment agency opened the night with his emotional private-business story of how it feels when you take over a company worth 25 million and with 250 employees overnight, when your great work wins a Titanium Lion in Cannes, although you never expected it, and how it feels when you really expect it, but then you fail. “Everyone around us expect us to be experts in many things, while marketing agencies have a task to either increase the sales or strengthen the brand for clients. So I learned that I should never play on a single card, and to embrace every failure. If you don’t fail, you have no chance of progress. You have to fight and feel the storm, and the more you have that, the more experienced and stronger you’ll be,” Žarko concluded.
The organizers also hosted the first speaker outside of Serbia, Miloš Milošević, CEO of Fleka Design studio from Montenegro. “We didn’t have time” is one of his many FuckUps, Miloš says. This fail was related to the burning desire for realization, which resulted in the failure to see the big picture of the market in which this idea was implemented. In order to prevent that others go through the same, he said they must always take the time and pause, look at things from multiple angles and consider all options, and added that FuckUps are a great school in all of this.
Janko Pavlović, creative director of Havas Adriatic, presented in a picturesque way the fail with the functions in his agency, and their serious roles when making important decisions that reflect both the agency and the team. In this case, it was an exhausting break of “playing” according to the client’s opinion, which inevitably affected the trust and eventually further cooperation. “To be enchanted by an idea is not enough, nor is it the essence in business. Work has to be done properly – or you shouldn’t start it at all,” Janko said in the end.
Based on the public’s reactions, it is obvious that the marketing industry is thirsty for events like this, which is an additional wind in the sails of the organizers who implement it – the agency for integrated marketing communications DNA Communications and the Center for Development of Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation ICT Hub. Next FuckUp Night can be therefore expected in a couple of months.
