They are creative directors heart&soul of all well established communication agencies. Read what Alen Grozaj, Creative Lead of the Publicis Zagreb agency, thinks about creativity… The interview was conducted by Nenad Danilović, editor-in-chief of Advertiser Serbia
Rate and provide insight into your agency’s creative contribution in 2024
– In short, it was very good. As a creative agency, we grow year by year, and what I would like to highlight is a very stable and high-quality relationship with our biggest client. Garnier and a team of people with whom we work together on a large number of campaigns, and more and more local productions. We started the year with a big campaign for Ducat bActivea brand that has been waiting a long time for a new image campaign, we worked on campaigns for Ghetaldusa pharmaceutical company Swixxdeveloped a new visual identity French-Croatian Chamber of Commerceand these days we are preparing something new for 2025, which we believe will have a very positive effect.
Give an assessment of the results of the work of the national and regional advertising scene in 2024… Select the best national and regional campaigns, with an explanation
– “A story worth every letter” by Bruketa and Žinićis a story worthy of praise. The Međimurje pasta producer received not only a campaign that was recognized and awarded by the Cannes jury, but also a legacy that will be remembered much longer than any marketing campaign.
Considering that we are still in the holiday/post-holiday period, we can mention the touching Christmas campaign A1 “Let love be the loudest”, which also sends a positive appeal, to think a little more about pets and a little less about firecrackers and fireworks, and which shares a beautiful Bacharach song with Amazon’s Christmas campaign (Amazon Midnight opus – Holiday 2024). One of the proofs that creativity is impossible to exhaust is the fact that every year we get at least a few impressive Christmas campaigns, and imagine how many people in this world come up with new creative ideas on the same simple brief .
Which global campaigns or notable individual works from 2024 caught your attention and why?
– Like last year, the answer to this question is yes Heineken. With the explosively entertaining “150 Years of Whateverken“, again slightly pushing the boundaries in the “technological sense”. The campaign “Boring Mode“It seems to me like a full hit against doomscrolanja. The idea is for people to put down their cell phones and really commit to the moment. There have already been such attempts, however The Pub has now created an application that “smart-phone” turns into “boring-phone” – no messages, applications, cameras, only a few basic functions. The campaign is interesting to observe in correlation with word of the year 2024. Oxford Dictionaryja – brain rot.
Of course, they went a step further and are in cooperation with Bodegom they also made real, physical “boring phones” and presented them at the Milan Design Week. Result? 70,000 people tried to reach the 5,000 pieces produced.
Brand Liquid Deathwater in a can, churns out noteworthy craziness on a regular basis. This year they especially excelled with corpse paint line for E.l.f. Cosmeticsice cream with Van Leeuwenom i Yeti cooling box. Who would have thought that people would go crazy for a casket for cooling a can of water? (went for 68 thousand dollars at the auction).
How do you see advertising today, is it a more conservative or a more dynamic system of action? Does it belong more to the opinion of tradition or to the opinion of revolution? What are its revolutionary capacities and how are these capacities expressed?
– The center cannot hold It can no longer be only one or only the other. Everything intertwines like a random playlist on Spotify. It can be a tradition, it can be a revolution, it can be both at the same time, if it is so packaged in a strategy that someone wants to support with the budget. “Revolution”? How antiquated that sounds in the context of a world where “brat” word of the year Collins Dictionaryja.
Can the individual advertising industry possess the right to revolt in organized form? Is there a possibility for the advertising industry to speak out when it comes to significant social, political and other collective problems? Is something like that possible in the national spaces created in the ex-YU area?
– I believe so. There are many examples. I always like to mention Carrefourovu campaign „Black Supermarket“ from a few years ago, which he designed and implemented in France Publiciswhich was brilliant, because it pointed out the absurd ban on the sale of traditional and local seeds in Europe. For the purposes of the campaign, they literally created a “black market” in the real space of Carrefour, where these forbidden seeds were available, in order to emphasize how important it is to preserve biological diversity. The campaign was not only super-creative but also really influential – it raised awareness of the problem and prompted changes in laws. Here’s political and social responsibility in one out-of-the-ordinary idea.
What do you think is the future of advertising – swimming in utopia, dystopia, or I will not go to the third one?
– We’ll see. Some big ones merge (Omnicom – IPG), some big ones survive but also grow (Publicis Groupe), new small ones appear every day…
The future of advertising, it seems to me, is neither a utopia nor a dystopia, but rather a hybrid. Advertising today is not only a tool for sales, but also a way of shaping identity and social values. Žižek he sees advertising as a “symptom” of society, revealing our desires, fears and beliefs.
Baudrillard would surely say that advertising has (p)remained hyperreal – it sells simulacra, idealized versions of reality that often have nothing to do with the product.
However, in this “third” direction I see the potential for “ethical creativity” – advertising that not only sells, but also inspires positive change and social responsibility. With the advancement of technology, we can use tools to better understand the audience, but it is important whether we use them for manipulation or for something useful.
The future of advertising depends on the decisions we make today. It can become a utopia where creativity serves the people or a dystopia where it is used for control.
In the end, we should strive for something third – advertising that is not only a reflection of society, but a catalyst for its transformation.
Author: Nenad Danilović
Izvor: Advertiser Serbia
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Source: www.advertiser-serbia.com
