By: Borislav Miljanović, CEO, Represent System
In the second week of May, I’ve spent two days participating in the European meeting of CEO’s of agencies in the affiliation of the world’s largest public relations network, Weber Shandwick. After a few missed years, the new leadership has organized an excellent gathering of leading people on the topic Where is this big global communications ship of ours sailing? I met with dear people, colleagues whom I’ve been in contact with for years, but haven’t had a chance like this to meet and discuss our joint future.
My first observation was how big multinational companies, such as Weber Shandwick, tackle the challenges of rapid changes in communication. Well, by acquiring the best. Over the last three years, our network has acquired, among others, three digital agencies and one of the most award-winning PR agencies in the world, the Swedish Prime. And we all usually think that these people, when they sell their agencies, go to retirement or to other businesses, but this is not the case gere. These Swedes, who have turned their agency into a miracle, were appointed to key European positions and now use their knowledge and experience to transform Weber Shandwick in the direction of a modern communication group with different knowledge and specialties.
It turned out that all that we have been doing in the Represent since 2015 is exactly what needed to be done in order to steer the traditional business of public relations towards the digital content future. Our only disadvantage is that we are in the small and poor region of the former Yugoslavia, which as such is not considered interesting on the global business map. And still, we are one of the major operations in Europe and we have the most reputable list of clients we are particularly proud of. The fact that our average client retention is over eight years, and the staff turnover is below 5%, has caused a great deal of attention from our colleagues. Icing on the cake was the initiative of our Finnish colleagues that in the future all of their video content will be entrusted to us for design and production.
And ultimately, communication is changing, but agency business isn’t. Knowledge and creativity can only succeed in symbiosis with new business and satisfied clients. After all, we are all in a big and dynamic industry where creativity is an unused art without new and satisfied clients, but in real packaging it is a rocket fuel of digital communication. And finally, my favourite message from one of the presentations given in London is: Be creative and hungry!
