By: Ekrem Dupanović, ekrem@media-marketing
Many people love what we do, but those who dislike us are also not few. There are many people who appreciate our efforts to contribute to the prosperity of the communications industry, but there are also those who would prefer us gone, because we are spoiling their plans. For them, the best of times were those when there was no information, and when they could do their business in a very narrow circle. If we have contributed to our profession looking better today than it would if we did not exist, by at least one percent (and we did even more), we are satisfied, and all the effort that we invest every day has paid off. And when those who don’t like us take a swing, I always remember the saying of the legendary founder of DDB, Bill Bernbach, who is our beacon on how to be brave. Bill once said: “If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you.”
Today we owe nothing to no one, and we used to. We owed not because we don’t like to pay our dues – we are happiest when we pay, because it means that we have the money. But, it used to happen that we don’t have a single euro drop into our account for a few months. How we function when that happens is best to ask Davor Bruketa, he knows our magic formula and our sponsor.
Our mission is to contribute to the development of the advertising industry in the region which we prefer to call the Adriatic region. We want to be friends with everyone. Our only problem is that we do business in which everyone wants to get everything immediately, but nobody likes to buy anything from us – with honorable exceptions. It happened more than once, when we posted a good campaign, that an advertiser calls us and asks for contacts with the agency whose campaign we published. A dozen agencies know that they received clients thanks to Media Marketing, but only two of them bought a banner on the portal. Thank God that native advertising was invented. But during the time it will take me to understand and accept it, others will grab all the budgets.
But, we’re good. Amir, Adnan, Gina and I are very satisfied with what we do. Now we are imagining what else we could do, how we can improve the content of the portal in order to attract even more visitors. We daily published ten articles, and about 6-8 news in the section 24 Hours. If even a single article each day grabs your interest, it pays off.
Last weekend was great. I spent almost entire day corresponding with Zenel Batagelj. We even skyped. Until a few days ago no one could drag me to Skype. I refused all calls because I don’t like it. But after my Thursday Skype conference with the people from the Slovenian advertising chamber regarding the Golden Drum, I fell in love with it. It was very pleasant, good atmosphere, it didn’t hurt … I greatly appreciate Zenel, because he knows everything there is to know about brands. It’s his job after all. Every time I learn something new from him, because he’s one of those people who are not stingy, who loves to share his knowledge and knows a lot. His only ‘flaw’ is that he is a ‘strict’ adman. I’m a dreamer who is more oriented towards creative. That’s why the two of us work well together – because we’re not the same, because we complement each other. A friend of mine said that as soon as two people think alike, one is redundant.
On Friday night I had a long phone conversation with my daughter Asja from St. Galen. She says I made her laugh to tears with my diary Thursday, in which I wrote about the book The Best of CDs. “Dear dad, you really can’t change. You’re the only man who goes into a project and only then does the calculation, and is then surprised by the costs. You really made me laugh.” I live in a family surrounded by a wife, a daughter and a son. All three are wisely rational, only I behave like a drunken billionaire. All of them are total legalists. For example, they pay their traffic fines on the same day when they get the ticket. I pay mine with a lump sum, when I extend my driver’s license. Of course, along with the additional penalties for late payment. The tickets seem to like me. After returning from every trip, blue envelopes follow. Speed cameras love me the most. When I met Vedrana, I was already four years without an ID card and did not have a driver’s license, even though I toured half of Europe in a car. That’s why Vedrana sometimes says: “When I met him, he didn’t even have an ID card or a driver’s license. And now see the man I made out of him.” And so the two of us live happily married for 39 years now.
