Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Darko Bosnar, Imago Ogilvy Zagreb
This year’s Eurobest will be especially memorable for the Imago Ogilvy agency. For the first time in the history of the festival, a Croatian agency independently held a lecture on the biggest European festival of creativity. Also, for the first time in history, a Croatian agency won the silver medal. In the new category Entertainment, work for Jana – Water with a message of love once again celebrated and thus concluded this very successful year when it comes to festivals. We didn’t win gold, but we also didn’t win bronze. We had two bronzes from before, so this was obviously that “third time’s the charm” type of thing :-)
Awards are increasingly difficult to win at big festivals, so apart from fantastic work, an agency not only has to do a fantastic case study, but also have crystal clear understanding of the categories to which it sends its works. Large international agencies have well-trained award-winning creative directors, who have already learned the rules of the game of winning the big trophies. In Croatia, we are going through the learning process on our own. After winning major awards from almost every major festival in the world, I can say with certainty, it’s neither easy nor cheap. But the targets we’ve set at Imago, we managed to achieve with hard work and a lot of effort. For years I went to Eurobest, Cannes … and watched others climb the stage to take their awards. The bright stage lights are always reserved only for the best, and if you want to rub shoulders with the best under the spotlights, you got to roll up our sleeves and do some serious work.
It was interesting to see that in the category in which we won silver there was no gold. And we equally shared silver with the work Survival Billboard by McCann London, which in other categories won several gold awards. And so, little by little, festival after festival, we are nearing the gold. It’s time will come. I always said that we can win even the biggest festivals, we just have to be patient and, more importantly, be diligent and positive.
I always remember the words of Dragan Sakan “Great ideas originate in a dream. No big idea was realized, without having been dreamed.” We dreamt a very long time, so now, the festival success that we achieved last week at the Eurobest, is becoming a dream come true.
There is one big difference in winning awards among agencies. A good work that brings an award happens to everyone in their career. But what makes a great agency great is continuously winning awards. That is what sets you apart from the average, and that is what proves that the agency is working perfectly. It’s by no means easy, but with a clear vision and clearly defined work process, it is very much possible.
If you want to do things that are something more than the usual advertising, first of all you have to be surrounded by a team of people who share your vision, desire and enthusiasm – people who understand what that means. One of the greatest and most awarded creative directors in the world, Erik Ververogen, nicely put it when he said that the best creative director is not the one who had the idea, wrote a copy, sold it, designed it… but the one that finds the best team of people in which everyone is the best in their field, and from each of them gets the most of what is needed to implement the idea. Only when you manage to set your team like this, you can be sure that the client will accept your idea and allow it to see the light of day. I am convinced that on each of our presentations, our clients very much feel our enthusiasm and desire for each project that we present. Emotions can’t be faked. It’s something that people feel. And if someone really feels that what you’re presenting is important to you, it’s very likely that they will give you their trust. And only then, with trust between the client and the agency, projects are made that are first and foremost good for the brand, and only then for winning prizes at festivals.
Imago Ogilvy at this year’s Eurobest in Rome, in addition to the award, also made a successful lecture. In the center of Rome, in the beautiful Plazzo Barberini hall, Damir Ciglar gave a lecture on Croativity. Through an interesting premise “Croats are quite creative, but others profit from their creativity,” Damir called on all participants, if they are smart, to take advantage of that. Let them come to Croatia and use us as much as they can. Of course, according to the price list :-)
I have always said that we have very much to show, and that we have nothing to be ashamed of. The spontaneous applause throughout the hall for a few of our cases confirmed this the best. Several people, immediately after the lecture, approached and began to make inquiries about Imago, Croatia, opportunities for collaboration. Business cards were exchanged, new contacts established. When we draw the line of this year’s Eurobest in Rome, we could say that this was definitely Imago Ogilvy’s “the Italian job”.