By: Asja Dupanović
Milica Kuvalja is a Market Researcher at DIRECT MEDIA United Solutions, Belgrade. She graduated Management at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and got her master’s degree at the same faculty in the field of Human Resource Management.
She began her career in marketing as a promoter, and while advancing to her present position, she had the opportunity to work with various clients, participate in pitches and development of tools within the DIRECT MEDIA United Solutions system, as well as to give presentations at the Direct Media Academy and Webiz courses. She’s a member of IAA Young Professionals, Serbian Chapter.
Although extraordinarily in love with agency work, she has another interesting passion which she nurtures.
MM: What was your first encounter with marketing?
Milica Kuvalja: Doing promotions, as a student, I had the opportunity to learn the basics of BTL marketing. That was an exceptional starting experience for me. By doing promotions for different product categories, targeted at different target groups, I’ve learned how to communicate with consumers of different segments and how to properly convey the brand message. What’s interesting is that, as a promoter, you not only get to meet your consumer, but you can also ask them everything you are interested in. So, besides promotion, you also do some research at the same time.
MM: They say you have a special passion for advertising. How did that passion develop?
Milica Kuvalja: I really believe in brands and advertising. Ads are there to contribute to awareness, and to shorten our research time, because consumers today are researchers, and they do quite a bit of consideration before making a purchasing decision. Ads are there to shorten that research process and save us some time.
MM: You are a market researcher in the agency. What does this mean exactly in everyday terms? What is your main task in the agency?
Milica Kuvalja: The research sector of a media agency has two focuses – the focus on the media market and focus on consumers. In this regard, my primary tasks are: monitoring the media market – which means working with all available industry-wide and proprietary tools, and defining different target groups, which means analysing the results of all relevant research available in the market and organizing additional qualitative and quantitative research.
When you add monitoring of consumer, media and technology trends to all this, you get a very interesting job description.
MM: Why market research? What attracted you to this specialization within the industry?
Milica Kuvalja: I came to the research sector by accident – although I don’t believe in coincidences and I believe that everything always happens for a reason. Namely, I applied for the position of the Media Planning Assistant, but during the selection process I was proposed as a candidate for the Research Sector. Although I didn’t know what that exactly meant back then, the name Research alone sounded more interesting, so I immediately agreed. It turned out it wasn’t a mistake.
I was attracted to the research sector by “fate”, but what has kept me in it is certainly its dynamics – the need for constant trends and the application of psychology in marketing.
MM: What kind of projects do you prefer working on?
Milica Kuvalja: I enjoy projects that give value to the entire agency and push it forward. These are innovative projects geared towards development, which help us do our job better.
MM: Where do you see the biggest issues in the client-agency relationships?
Milica Kuvalja: Research is an internal sector that functions as support to the Accounts and other sectors in the agency. The most common clients of our sector are actually our colleagues from other sectors. I suppose that my Account colleagues could give a better answer to this question.
Nevertheless, what I’ve noticed as the most common issue in the client-agency relationships is the lack of understanding which data agency has at its disposal, and which not. Also, there is often the lack of education on the client side for interpretation of various analyses the agency provides.
DIRECT MEDIA United Solutions has therefore taken on the role of educator, and often organizes trainings for its clients in various fields, including in research.
MM: What is the key thing that you, the younger generations are bringing to the advertising industry?
Milica Kuvalja: Agility and readiness for change.
MM: What is your main passion outside the agency?
Milica Kuvalja: Organization of special events – especially wedding organization. I love beautiful and interesting things, and weddings certainly check that list.
