Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
On Thursday, 29 June, in the early morning hours, I started my car. After a number of years, Vedrana and I are going on a true vacation. The days that I can set aside during the year and that we can use for trips, due to various commitments we spend that time together at conferences, festivals and other trips related to business only. I can’t say that everything related to my work is tiring, but a vacation should be a vacation. For this one, we have a special occasion – on Sunday, 2 July, it is our 40th anniversary. On that day we would sail out of Genoa for an eight-day cruise on the Mediterranean. This is my gift to Vedrana, as a sign of appreciation for everything she has given me over the past four decades, and she gave me a lot. I’m afraid of possible jams at the border between Croatia and Slovenia on Friday, and since I don’t want anything to spoil our trip, I decided that we leave on Thursday.
We arrive in Ljubljana in the evening, just in time to get to Hotel Union, refresh, change clothes, and go to the Pen Club, for a dinner with friends with whom we want to celebrate the anniversary of our marriage. I’ve been thinking about this evening for two months. There are many people in Ljubljana who I consider my friends, and with whom I would like to share our joy. Finally, I decided to call six of them. I’ve spent most time with Jernej Repovš – at least 45 years. He’s a constant in my life. 22 years ago, I met Tina Bolcar, who wasn’t his wife at the time. So, Tina and Jernej. We also invited Janja Božič Marolt who always showed great love and friendship towards Vedrana and me. For this evening, Janja was simply unavoidable. I knew that she got along with Jernej well, for whom she said was her favourite boss ever (when you organize a lunch or a dinner with people from the advertising industry, you have to be mindful of who goes well with whom, who will not spoil your atmosphere, whose ego will be hurt …). Jernej, Tina and Janja – an older generation of our industry. We needed someone younger, someone who would represent a generation that needs to change this industry and lead it forward. My choice fell on Viktorija Radovanovic, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications of Mercator. A great girl who will make a great career in our industry. And, finally, every cake needs a cherry on top. Vlado and Eva Kreslin, our long-time family friends who represented friends outside the business sphere.
So, our original idea for this dinner was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our marriage. As Jernej received a medal from the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor earlier for the campaign Slovenia, My Country, we decided to dedicate that evening to him. When we arrived at the Pen Club we were welcomed by Ms. Oli, whom I know for 45 years now, ever since I started coming to the Pen Club (I had 90 per cent of my lunches and dinners in Ljubljana in the past decade at the Pen Club). I also knew Miki, Ms. Oli’s husband, a legend of the Pen Club who left us seven years ago. That Thursday evening, when we arrived, Ms. Oli told us that this evening marked 50 years since she is with the Pen Club, and that she will not work anymore as of tomorrow. She wants to write a book about the Pen Club guests. She gave the restaurant to her nephew, who has been working there for years. The summer season is in full swing in Ljubljana, and guests are moving from closed restaurants to the “sea” of gardens and restaurants along the Ljubljanica. That’s why that evening at the Pen Club, there were only our friends, Vedrana and I. Ms Oli served us dinner. We had the honour that she personally served us her last dinner after 50 years. So we devoted this evening to her, Ms Oli, who will be respectfully remembered by everyone who at least once in the past 50 years had lunch or dinner at the Pen Club, an iconic restaurant in Ljubljana.
Meetings started as of 08:00h in the morning on Friday.
First a coffee with Mojca Majhen from the agency Paideia. Our topic – the Golden Drum festival. Paideia is the strategic partner of the Slovenian Advertising Chamber in organization of the Golden Drum and SOF, and we are media sponsors of both festivals. We plan how to communicate this year’s Golden Drum as creatively and efficiently as possible. Golden Drum this year will bring some novelties both in the competition and in the program part, which will make it even more relevant festival of creativity. She gave me her impressions from Cannes where she was with Mojca Briščik, President of the Godlen Drum and director of SOZ. She says that at the festival they made several very important contacts for the Golden Drum, and saw how certain things are done that make a festival of creativity more attractive to participants and competitors. She believes that Ljubljana will open its heart for Golden Drum this year even wider, and that Grand Hotel Union, as the central place of events, will fully satisfy even the most demanding participants. I informed Mojca about the Creative Portfolio, a book with all the works awarded at national and regional festivals in the past year that we plan to promote at this year’s Golden Drum.
My next coffee was with Valerija Prevolšek, Director of Media Pool and President of Sempl. We are media sponsors to Sempl as well. Sempl is a conference of media trends, but nevertheless, the target group is quite similar to that of the Golden Drum, so Valerija and I noted the specifics of the Sempl and we agreed on a strategy how to best communicate this to the agencies, advertisers and the media in the region. I like to work with Valerija. She is always open in communication, efficient and ready to accept new ideas. We talked about all aspects of the conference and competition for the sempler awards. Some things are too early to write about right now, so I will leave it for some other occasion. I asked Valerija to join the Woman.Comm Club Ljubljana, and lead it together with two other women from the Slovenian communications industry. She accepted, which pleased me immensely because now I know that we will have a great club in Ljubljana. And, ultimately, but not least, Valerija ordered an ad for Sempl in the Creative Portfolio book. That’s very important to us, because this book will be a serious financial venture. Thank you!
Bor Klemenc, a copywriter at the Grey Ljubljana agency, arrived. With him I agree a series of columns that Bor will write for Media Marketing as of September. He has a great idea and I believe that all young creatives will be thrilled when we start publishing his articles. Bor was among the young leaders that we presented in a series of interviews two years ago. We should repeat that.
Mojca Briščik passed by the café in which I was talking with Bor. She was returning from the municipality where she signed some papers for the Russians coming to the Golden Drum. Bor left soon, and Mojca and I continued talking about the situation in the regional advertising industry that is quite complex. How can it influence the Golden Drum and how much, and how can Golden Drum contribute to further promotion of creativity in the region and industry development? I told her about the Creative Portfolio, which will be promoted at the Golden Drum. Considering that 179 works created by 69 agencies will be presented in the book, I believe that this could be an additional incentive for the agencies “from the book” to come to the Golden Drum.
At noon, I had an appointment with Zori Jakolin, who is very successful in organizing events (www.zoryevents.com). I wanted to talk to her about taking over all the business, organization and sponsorship of Woman.Comm Club Ljubljana. In each country we will have three women in the management of the club, but we want to provide everyone with the logistical support in view of the modest current economy. I presented Zori with the whole project and she accepted collaboration with pleasure. We also talked about expanding our cooperation to some other Woman.Comm projects. This was a great meeting.
In the afternoon I had planned to visit the Grey agency with Špela Žorž. I stopped by a florist to get flowers for Špela. I also brought her a gift – the book The Best of Adriatic Creative Directors. You can’t go empty handed do an agency that won two lions at the Cannes Lions. The first surprise was the lion at the entrance. A big lion made out of concrete. Later they explained to me that this is a lion that was given to them by the employees of the marketing department of A1 Slovenia, the client whose radio ads got two lions in Cannes. They brought the lion themselves and set it up overnight while it was raining. That’s how it goes when a client knows how to show respect to their agency. Kudos A1!!! This is something that rarely happens today. Another surprise was the inscription at the front door: Beware, there are two lions inside. Instead of the lions, a beautiful dog jumped at me at the door, welcoming me. He sniffed me and let me in. The dog fells at home there, because his owner, one of the creatives at Grey, regularly brings him to work. Grey has a special creative atmosphere. There are no walls between the departments, only the meeting room is enclosed, but with a glass wall so you can always see what is happening in the hall and outside it. My hosts are Špela Žorž, CEO, and Jernej Špende, the digital strategist of Grey and the guy who sent me the news about the Cannes lions. Špela told me about the past year that was very dynamic and successful for Grey, and she promised we would receive more news and authorial texts from Grey in the future. Considering that Grey was the Agency of the Year at this year’s SOF, there will be plenty of space for them in the Creative Portfolio. We agreed on the materials for that. Jernej said he would make sure everything would go as it should. After an hour I leave Grey with great impressions of the unusual agency, whose successes – I’m sure – we will testify for the years to come. I believe Media Marketing got another great friend.
From Grey, I went to the Vander Hotel for a drink with Žare Kerin, my friend who beautifully designed our book The Best of Adriatic Creative Directors. I told him I would like to enter the book for the Golden Drum. We agreed to go to the Golden Drum and that Žare would make a video for the presentation. He told me he was preparing a book of his works, but that he doesn’t know when it will come out. It will come when it’s done, he said.
Vedrana and I went to dinner. I was already starting to feel fatigue from the numerous meetings that lasted from 8:00 to 18:30. Dinner in the old part of Ljubljana was relaxing.
On Saturday morning, we continue for Genova. In the evening we arrived at the Savoia Hotel, which looks fantastic. I asked Vedrana whether we would actually go to the cruise at all, or stay here for seven days. Thanks to Elizabeta Planinić and her agency Putuj Bolje, with whom we organized this trip.
We set sail on Sunday evening. The ship is fantastic, just like from Holywood movies.
The first day we docked in Cannes. We didn’t get off the boat. We stayed at the pool, in good restaurants, and reading books. I brought with me the book Muhammad Ali – The Life Story. I was reading it since Ljubljana. A great book. It’s best to read it in the evening, on the balcony of the cabin as the ship “cuts” through the sea, and while listening to the waves washing against it.
On the second day afternoon, we stopped in Palma de Mallorca, from where I am sending this diary.
Palma de Mallorca, 4 July 2017