Dear all,
The story of eurobest begins in June with an email: “Dear Jana, I would love to see you on the stage of this year’s eurobest!”, from Mark St Andrew, Cannes Lions. A great honor for me and our agency.
The story continues a few months later with a trip to Antwerp under the psychosis of a security alert of the 4th degree because of the threat of terrorist attacks.
Belgrade-Brussels: Brussels unusually quiet. Christmas decorations and the army on the streets. Jingle bells and armored vehicles. Waffles and rifles. At the restaurant Carmen Bistrian, a colleague from Romania, waiters, and I. Soon the train to Antwerp will depart.
Brussels-Antwerp: At the registration desk of the festival I am greeted with: “Thank you for not being afraid to come.” I answer: “You’re welcome” (if you only knew where I come from you wouldn’t be afraid either).
The story continues with a series of well-rehearsed steps, checking the presentation, technical rehearsal, meetings with production companies and creative companies.
At Eurobest I had the opportunity to speak twice. First, under the program on the Discovery Stage, with the story of creativity on a very low budget, and then at the Young Digital Academy, an educational program for young creative people, with a story about the stories behind great ideas. All in all, a lot of stories and talking.
One festival, two audiences. Hardcore advertisers and young colleagues. Guess who was more amiable.
In a presentation titled Pocket Money Creativity, my goal was to introduce a distinctive method, developed spontaneously in the Balkans. Our individual, bold and crazy creativity that refuses to be served the story of how things are impossible. In terms of limitations, the great caution of clients and brands, but also the democratization of digital media, the birth of the creative voice of a generation that questions what is given, digs into dangerous topics, experiments and connects the incompatible, and is heard on the pages of Adweek, Creativity, Digiday. Creativity which wins world awards, pushing the industry in this region forward.
I gave my second presentation at the Young Digital Academy. Pop Up agency exits the stage, I enter. Our topic is Stories behind ideas. Behind every idea is a good story. In this case, it’s the story of a personal experience that spawned the first Cannes Lion for Serbia, and then a discussion about the creative schedule – which sounds bureaucratic, but is in fact part of the discipline of the act of creation – then the legend of creative courage, followed by questions: how does a creative agency from this region operate; what does our creative process look like; how did we come up with the ideas for our best campaigns… A lot of “hows” and “whys” and whether it is possible to convince a client to do something even if they’ve tried it a hundred times, but it doesn’t work.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Antwerp order and kindness. The food is excellent, as is the design. Everyone is on bikes.
In the end, a big night for the McCann family, which won 28 awards. Pride.
All the best,
The interview is published at the following portal: http://www.media-marketing.com/en/opinion/all-the-best-from-eurobest/
