BE PREPARED TO DEFEND YOUR BEST IDEAS AND STAND BY THEM, AND TRY OUT NEW THINGS
Davor Bruketa is the Creative Director of Bruketa & Žinić OM advertising agency, the firm that he co-founded with Nikola Žinić in 1995. He was the first creative from SE Europe to preside over the London International Awards jury. He was also a jury member of the Art Directors Club New York, D&AD London, NY Festivals, Graphis, MIAF-Moscow and is a permanent member of the Cresta Awards Grand Jury. Bruketa & Žinić OM is The Best International Small Agency of the Year (AdAge 2013), The Second Most Efficient Independent Advertising Agency Globally (Effie Index, Cannes, 2012) and one of the most award-winning design and advertising agencies in Southeastern Europe with over 400 international awards.
Q: What do you say to fact that you are marked out as the star of regional advertising?
No one in our agency feels like a star. Both Žinić and I are hard workers who love their job (sometimes not so much J ). Žinić is writing e-mails at midnight and I answer them at 5 AM. In our business you are as good as your last project and anyone who thinks that’s not true should change their career.
Q: To refresh the memory of our readers, and respond to those who do not know you yet, what does the Bruketa & Žinić agency do?
Bruketa & Žinić OM is a group of agencies that deal with marketing communication, with offices in Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Azerbaijan. The agency has been awarded the best international small agency of the year 2013 by the Advertising Age and the second most efficient independent agency globally by the Effie Index 2012. We deal with the entire brand from its positioning, visual identity, graphic and packaging design, to communication strategy, advertising in all offline and online media, retail design, product design and architecture.
Q: From the numerous awards for creativity and for your originality, do you have a basic recipe formula for success?
First, only efficient creativity is the right creativity in our business. It’s important to listen to your client, develop mutual understanding and communicate as much as possible. With a good brief, research and analysis comes good insight. Then creativity comes in. You should be prepared to defend your best ideas and stand by them, and try out new things where you don’t feel safe.
Q: How can you be faithful to both your own need to create and the actual needs of the client?
To every person in our business the need to create should be equal to the need of solving clients’ problems and needs. That’s advertising!
Q: What is advertising like during an economic crisis? Can it still exist and what does the future hold?
Advertising in the time of crisis means being creative and efficient with less money. It can be frustrating, but inspiring if you look at it that way. The future brings even less money, but more precise targeting options and more innovative channels to use. But the content will always be in the centre.
Q: What would your ad for promoting the Croatian meetings industry look like?
It would not be an ad in the classic sense, but a news story that would travel to its target audience through different channels, coming from someone they personally trust the most.
Q: If you could work for any brand in the world which one you would choose?
A brand of Croatian electrical car.
Q: We have heard the arguments of your compatriot Jovan Jelovac that design is omnipresent. How important is that in the meetings and event industry?
Extremely important. The meeting and event industry has a lot to do with storytelling and visual experience. It’s what the designers and advertisers are best at.
Q: How creative are the many advertising festivals at which you are picking up your awards? What is the thing that makes festivals as events important?
They could do better J Location, location, location, plus a story that evolves around it in the smallest details – I think that’s important.
Q: Your agency is the license holder for the Pecha Kucha events? What kind of events do you feel are the most attractive? Is the content or the form more important?
A smart combination of both – that’s exactly what PechaKucha is. Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. I hate it when content without meaning is piled up just to satisfy a form.
Q: The common question: The best event of all time in your opinion?
The landing on the Moon.
DAVOR BRUKETA DEFINING MOMENTS
The craziest destination: Iceland
The craziest event: Landing on the moon
If you could be present at any event in history: The Big Bang
Hotel to which you like to return: Lone
Rock concert that you would like to see: Nick Cave
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