Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović, ekrem@www.media-marketing.com
What is the future of advertising agencies? How will the agencies look like in ten, fifteen or twenty years? Advertising Age tried to answer this question in the article titled The Ad Agency of the Future is Coming. Are You Ready? AdAge interviewed a dozen influential people of the global advertising industry who spoke about how the agencies of the future will look like. The forecasts are not bad, especially if you take into account the fact that among the agencies there are already some of the world’s largest consultancies. I guess they know what our future will look like. IBM Interactive Experience, Deloitte Digital, Price WaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young are serious players in the advertising industry. The first three are among the ten largest digital networks in the world, and are among the 15 largest agency companies. Of course, holding companies will continue to rule the world, but Martin Sorrell predicts that in time “six will become four,” as the top communications groups – WPP, Omnicom, DentsuAegis Network, Publicis Groupe, Interpublic and Havas – consolidate further. You can read more about this in the integral text which we have on the portal.
And while the world outlines the future of the industry, it seems to me that we in the region are standing still. Nothing important is happening. Will we be ready to face what is coming? Probably, since most of the agencies are already networked into large agency chains. Soon three more will join. One has already finished the job, we’re just waiting for someone in the PR center of the agency network to show mercy and send us the approval to publish the news. Another agency is already deeply immersed in the negotiations, and the third is at the start, but things are rolling. All agencies that are part of the global holding companies are going into the future guided by the hand of their ‘bosses’. But it would also benefit their bosses if the market in the region is brought into order. It would benefit them if we, in such a small space, wouldn’t have six different sets of pitching regulations, and different laws regulating advertising. Of course, each country is sovereign and can arrange its market as it suits her, but some order wouldn’t harm anyone if it would facilitate business. We’re not a mature industry. The national associations are not doing anything to link and thus facilitate the work of their members. They communicate only at the level of mutual assistance in bringing people from the neighborhood to festivals and large conferences. “You scratch our back, and we’ll scratch yours,” and that’s about it.
Everyone would like for others to come to them, but they don’t want to go to others. Two years ago, Media Marketing organized the first meeting of the national associations of the Adriatic region. It was a time when we organized The Cup in Belgrade with Jure Apih. Everyone came. We talked for almost three hours, agreed a bunch of things, and ultimately… nothing happened. Why? Because there was a lack of readiness among associations to commit to what was agreed. No one knew who would schedule the next meeting. We thought it was enough on our part to have enabled the first step. The rest was no longer our job. However we observe the Balkans, the Adriatic region, the ex-Yugoslavia or whatever other name you use for the market in which we used to live together (and we still do), it’s a market on which all the companies from Triglav to Gevgelija operate. By the nature of business, agencies tag along with their clients. Thus many agencies have opened their affiliates in the region and have a problem with the uneven business conditions. This needs to be addressed. The market needs to be brought to order. It’s necessary to again sit at the same table and negotiate. Hence the extreme importance of the idea of the new president of Serbian UEPS, Viktor Nikolić, who wants to organize a meeting of the national associations of the Adriatic region so that this region could discuss the future of the industry as well. Viktor should be supported.
Monday was a very busy day. My 66th birthday. Minutes pass the slowest, while years fly. I guess when one reaches this age, he wants them to last “a year”, not fly by quicker than you can clap your hands. It seems as if the New Year’s was yesterday, and we are already on the verge of the summer. Or so it seems to me, because I would like for time to stop. Anyway, the family made sure that the birthday is rich in content. Summing up Facebook, mail (the most) and phone, I received over 300 messages with good wishes. Most of the messages were very creative and sincere. I hope that no one will get offended if I single out one of them – the one that I got from Mišo Lukić: “Dear Ekrem, happy birthday with the wishes that you continue to keep spreading the Ekremism, as a religion in which humanity has priority over all other attributes and values.” Another beautiful greeting card came from Washington, from Milena Garfield, but I can’t disclose it because it goes beyond the boundaries of my modesty and personal humility. Thank you Amir and Adnan for the wonderful gift. I received a lot of them, but theirs brought me a special joy.
Thank you all for the nice wishes. They really mean a lot. I will do my outmost best not to disappoint you.
Now I’m off to Collegium Artisticum for the opening of the exhibition of posters by my friend Goran Lizdek, and then off to night life. I deserve it. Not every day is your 66th birthday.
Sarajevo, 9. May, 2016.