Next year will be marked by the 30th anniversary of the founding of company Alma Quattro, which enriches its network of advertising media and renders that network dynamic and diverse in accordance with market growth, new clients and new business offers
Our company and OOH (out-of-home) advertising itself have passed the test of time and all the challenges of digitalisation, while at the same preserving a relevant market position by combining the old and the new – says Alma Quattro CEO Sanja Pešić in this CorD interview, before emphasising that everything the company does is done thoughtfully and with a view to the long term.
How has your portfolio expanded over the three decades that you’ve been doing business and what comprises that portfolio today? Has it grown in parallel with the list of clients, and their demands and expectations, but also the growth of your team and the company’s ambitions?
– Everything began with illuminated media, which was then still an expensive investment. We started with public city transport stops and small media displayed within the scope of those stops, and with a large one of 12m2.
The printing was done on a screen printing, an advanced technology for that time, so we sent pre-print materials to Italy and imported the finished materials. And we were doing all this while the country was under sanctions, and the economy and advertising sector were facing major problems. We emerged from everything triumphantly, with domestic printing houses growing alongside us, and we expanded our portfolio with the inclusion paper billboards in order to respond to the appearance of competition. We also entered the segment of large advertising media exceeding 50m2, thereby completing our offer.
Digitalisation has accelerated in recent years and online channels and social media are the fastest growing segments of the advertising market as a whole
And given that keeping pace with the development of modern technologies it is an imperative for every business, we entered into the digitalisation process. Over the years of work and with the introduction of additional services, we earned the trust of domestic and foreign clients, because out-of-home advertising is the oldest mass media and an excellent accompaniment to the media mix that has a quick and large impact on the public.
Digitalisation has brought huge competition your way in the form of electronic media and social media platforms, but it has simultaneously also enabled you to advance your operations, right?
– The digitalisation process has indeed accelerated in recent years, and the internet, i.e., online channels and social media, are the fastest growing segments of the advertising market as a whole. However, with a high-quality media plan, which includes both out-of-home and other forms of advertising, one can achieve a greater impact when they are mutually dependent. Clients recognise this and increasingly utilise the advantages of both. And we started digitalising our network ourselves as of 2018. With legally unpopular decisions, the City of Belgrade has slowed down our company’s growth, but we hope that a solution will be reached very soon and that we will continue to expand and advance this segment of our portfolio.
Alma Quattro is part of Switzerland’s APG SGA, but also part of France’s JCDecaux Group. What have you learned from the Swiss and French business models, in which areas do you look to them?
– It’s really nice to be in such good company, with a world-class leader like JCDecaux and with APG SGA, which is committed and as precise as a Swiss watch. The greatest benefit of this affiliation is that we have adopted the mindset nurtured by these companies that have resulted in them enduring and having good business practices, or knowhow, thereby enabling us to constantly improve our work and set industry standards. Everything we do is done thoughtfully and with a view to the long term. Our strategy is long-term oriented, with decisions that always look to the future and solutions that could also be implemented 30 years from now.