Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović
Preparations for the Cannes Lions in Sarajevo on 3 March are at the very finish line. Everything’s ready, we’re just waiting for the day to come. We expect a large number of people from Sarajevo and across Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.
Today we talk with one of the speakers, Toni Tomašek, creative director of Publicis Groupe Slovenia (Publicis, Saatchi&Saatchi, Leo Burnett). Toni won the first two lions for our region (2001 and 2006). In this time of victories he was the creative director of MediaMix from Maribor, the only agency in the region apart from New Moment Skopje that has won two Cannes Lions so far. Almost unattainable.
Media Marketing: What was it like in 2001 when you brought the first lion from Cannes to Slovenia?
Toni Tomašek: Unreal. Something in the style of Mladen Delić and his “Oh people, is this possible? Awesome!” We were a small agency, a young team with no involvement in the global networks. In fact, we were uninteresting and humble, respectfully looking at Ljubljana and dreaming.
Our first, the one and only application for Cannes … and boom, advertising Oscar! A Cannes Lion, and a gold one at that. And we also ran for the Grand Prix, along with Crispin, Porter+Bogusky and their Truth campaign which launched them into orbit. It was a year when the region received its first Oscar, for Danis Tanović’s No Man’s Land. Overnight we became interesting. Totally unexpected and unaccustomed to any prizes, with no set goal and desire for rewards at all, it was really unexpected, as if it had fallen from another world. We compared with Austria, which has a more developed advertising industry, but doesn’t win awards at Cannes every year. We got the opportunity to develop in Slovenia and we started to grow.
Media Marketing: And what was it like in 2006 when you snatched the second lion?
Toni Tomašek: The year before that (2005) we sent another work to Cannes. And again it was the only one we sent, and we entered the finals of Integrated category with Festival of European Languages, which was the first entry from our region to reach the prestigious category of integrated, comprehensive campaigns. I think that up to now no one in the region has achieved that.
The second prize came according to the same recipe – just one unpretentious entry, and again a call from Franci Zavrl on the occasion of this crazy news. Then we already knew how to enjoy the prize. My first words of thanks were addressed to Franci who – like many others – simply could not believe it. I told him: “Give us a difficult task.” Now it was already difficult to say that it was a fluke, like some said the first time.
We won a bronze in the Cyber Lion category. It happened that we were again in competition with Crispin, Porter+Bogusky with their campaign VW GTI Features. It’s interesting that during a meeting in Miami with Andrew Keller, who was the CD and Copy on both campaigns, I found out that we were the same age and had the same hairstyle.
At that point, the agency MediaMix already grew. With young and ambitious associates, we have become a magnet for national awards and then again the Cannes Lion. An unforgettable moment. We were proud. Offers started pouring in and it was a start of several careers. Here I have to say that in both winning works, co-authors of the ideas apart from me were exclusively Miha and Boštjan.
Media Marketing: Could you present to us those two campaigns which are keeping you in the region’s top for ten years already when it comes to successes in Cannes?
Toni Tomašek: The first Cannes award, the Media Lion, came as result of the campaign in which client was the Municipality Maribor. The aim was to reduce the number of road accidents among young people during the so-called “Merry December”. Data showed that most accidents happen in the group of drivers 18 to 30 years of age, on weekends between 22:00 and 02:00 hours and the most common cause is excessive use of alcohol.
The idea was strategic … rather than holding moral lectures to young people and forbidding them to drink while driving, which they certainly would not have listened to and respected, we offered them an alternative – a taxi ride. We included in the campaign the existing three taxi companies, and we printed a message on the bottom of beer mugs.
We shared 7000 beer mugs in the 14 most visited nightclubs. The message “It’s time for a cab” appeared before drinkers’ eyes after each finished pint of beer, more downed mugs – the greater frequency of the message. The campaign had become the subject of entertainment, mugs became trophies and regular residents of dormitories and participants at parties.
After comparing the regular data of traffic police after two months, it turned out that traffic accidents involved 43 percent less members of our target group, there was a 52 percent decrease in number of rejections of taking the breathalyzer test, and among all drivers pulled over there were 47 percent fewer drivers under the influence of alcohol. But that doesn’t mean that everyone abstained from alcohol that December.
The campaign generated an entrepreneurial taxi wave. In the beginning of the campaign there were three cab carriers, six months later, there were already eight. Price of kilometre fell by 30 percent and became available to the general public, who began using taxi on a daily basis. Nightclubs had higher circulation because the target audience changed shop several times and stayed out even longer. The campaign later received other creative, media and strategic awards.
The second Cannes award, the Cyber Lion, came for the internet page of the production company Arkadena Film. The idea was a focused design, functionality and copy in the form of credits in only one element – the credits typical for video production. Simple, but powerful. It was a demonstration of the job’s DNA and their message that they live it was extraordinary. The twist in the idea that made it prize worthy is in the detail that visitor to the site “runs” the film, and the credits, by scrolling with their mouse.
Media Marketing: Can festivals and festival awards regain the lost dignity to the advertising industry?
Toni Tomašek: I don’t know what exactly this lost dignity means, and I don’t understand where and why someone had lost it. I’m very pragmatic and I don’t understand where some see romance in advertising. This is a very serious business in the field of creative services. If you love doing something and above all you’re good at it, then there’s no reason for the melancholy and resentment. That’s reserved for egos, which are generally destructive. If you do your job, if you’re ambitious and patient, then such thinking is completely unnecessary and out of place. If someone once took your dignity – to the individual of course – you are the only one who can retain it, not some prize.
Awards at festivals are just awards in the profession. That’s their goal – to push the standards, to push the profession forward, to let the best stand out. In this respect prizes have large significance. It’s similar in all other areas – sports, music, film …
Media Marketing: You’re a very experienced and successful creative. How do you see Slovenia’s creative scene today?
Toni Tomašek: After several years of Slovenian lack of readiness for the crisis it has, thank God, left the news headlines and made room for some other, more important things. There’s no more panic. The fact is that change is the only constant. That’s how it was and that’s how it always will be. The consolidation of the economy, including advertising, was necessary because there were a lot of unreality among the stakeholders, both on the agency and the client side. Today the situation is more realistic, that period is at its end. In recent years you can feel a fresh puff, of optimism, will and, most importantly, ambition, because without it there is no progress at all. In short – things began to happen.
Unfortunately there is less young people. Less talent coming. In the past, when we had lost contact with reality and profession, advertising lost its charm and appeal here. There is much that can’t be seen, but for the independence of its economy, Slovenia urgently needs its own creative and pervasive driving force in marketing and advertising. Sooner rather than later we have to begin to appreciate this profession and to return it to the position from which we will benefit in the long run.
I am an eternal optimist. It’s never too late to be what you can become.
Media Marketing: You’re coming 3 March to the Cannes Lions in Sarajevo.
Toni Tomašek: Yes and I’m really looking forward to this event. First, I will meet and socialize with my colleagues who had the opportunity to win a Lion in Cannes. Second, I will have the opportunity to share my experience with creatives from Sarajevo and the region who will come on 3 March 3 to the magnificent Sarajevo’s Vijećnica. I’m excited and I’ll try to fulfil the expectations of all who come. I can’t wait for the Cannes Lions in Sarajevo.