By: Adnan Arnautlija
Sašo Pešev is a partner of New Moment and Director of New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje. He is a man of great experience in the advertising industry and has received many awards, including the Titanium Lion from Cannes. Sašo keeps his feet firmly on the ground and is very objective in his assessments and predictions, but his creative half always strives for the stars, his ambitions are always high and he doesn’t shy away from throwing down the gauntlet, even to those much younger than himself.
MEDIA MARKETING: What was 2015 like for the agency New Moment Skopje?
SAŠO PEŠEV: This year has gone in the opposite direction from my business philosophy. I’ve always wanted to work little, sell smarts and creativity, and do it expensively. And to realize some mega ideas, some big projects and draw benefits from them, including the material, of course. Unfortunately, 2015 was everything but that. We worked our asses off, stayed up late at night, there were even several working weekends in a row, without a single day off. People were really working too hard. And all this in order to keep such a large agency in good shape. New Moment Skopje, in terms of number of people and their quality, has surpassed the Macedonian market. We need large and well-paid projects. Unfortunately, that is a withering commodity in classical advertising, especially in Macedonia. That’s why we try to work more in the area of the creative industries. But to cut my whining, the numbers refute what I say. We will end the year with a positive balance, with slightly more people than last year, and for the third consecutive year we came back from Cannes with an award. This time it was a Silver Lion for the Red Phone campaign which we did for the television station Telma.
MEDIA MARKETING: What will you remember 2015 for?
SAŠO PEŠEV: For the very serious political crisis, even for Macedonia, which has shattered the democratic foundations of our state and the Macedonian economy.
I will also remember it for the revival of our association MAAM and my involvement in it, and the creation of the conditions for an international tender for the selection of a research agency that will carry out the measurement of TV ratings.
And, of course, I will remember 2015 for the awards we have won for New Moment Skopje and for the entire network of New Moment.
MEDIA MARKETING: What do you expect from 2016, what are your plans?
SAŠO PEŠEV: Life has taught me that you can control only your own energy and commitment. That’s what I’m working on, so that even after so many years I can compete with the younger ones in the desire for something new and to prove myself anew. But, unfortunately, a lot of things in this business don’t depend on my plans and ambitions.
I’m not a very big fan of horoscopes, but next year is a leap year, and that means we’re in for a dynamic and somewhat chaotic 2016, in which we will reassess our decisions, strategies, and values.
I have been saying for a long time that our future is bright if we manage to use our creative potential and get into all the fields of creative industries that can bring business to our clients and us. Now the trends are content and startups.
People say that everything that begins in a leap year (and 2016 will be a leap year), has a short deadline. Maybe they’re right. These are, actually, the times of startup businesses, and the statistics show that 9 out of 10 startups don’t survive, but close in the first 18 months. Harsh statistics. Pessimistically viewed, every entrepreneur who starts a new business should immediately start thinking about what they will do when they fail. There are many times in my life when I, too, didn’t succeed. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have the ambition to always try again. Bad statistics shouldn’t demoralize us. You learn most from failure.
This year, New Moment Skopje is moving into film production. We’ll be filming the feature film The Happiness Effect with Borjan Zafirovski, and I hope that, together with Dušan Drakalski, our regional creative director, I will complete the scenario for our second feature film in 2016.
According to the Chinese horoscope, 2016 is the year of the monkey. The monkey is smart, active, creative and a little bit crazy. We also have to be like that if we want to succeed on a global scale, outside of this (lousy) region.
