In 2023, agency Chapter 4 has succeeded in expanding its cooperation with existing clients and gaining new clients and new projects. Its team has enhanced its competences through various training courses and exerted efforts to contribute to the development of the profession and won the European Excellence Award
Circumstances locally and globally have a great impact on communication, the future of which is dependent on us, at least according to our interlocutors from Chapter 4. As they emphasise, the more dedicated and better we are at what we do, the more likely we are to achieve a positive outcome.
The best socially responsible campaigns in Serbia were declared recently and included two that you participated in with your clients. Congratulations! Did 2023 live up to your expectations?
MAB: It was a really good year for our team and for Chapter 4 as a PR agency. We expanded our cooperation with existing clients and gained new clients and new projects during the year; we improved internally at various training courses and made efforts to contribute to the development of the profession through our participation in various conferences, and awards ultimately also arrived. Among them is the so-called European PR Oscar – European Excellence Award – which we entered the finals for with as many as two clients – Pepsico and Galenika – and took home one award, the highest gold medal. We are really extremely satisfied with everything we achieved over the year as a team.
You often emphasise that Chapter 4 is oriented towards people, respect and ethics in communication. Does that approach also form the basis of your mutual relationship?
TB: It is extremely important that, from day one, we’ve had honest and transparent communication and mutual respect and acceptance, even when we don’t have the same opinion on absolutely every topic. Our relationship has never been just a business one. It was out of an existing friendship that the idea to launch a joint business was born, and I think that’s the key to our partnership, because we share the same values and views on both the professional front and on social and life topics. We often comment that we still learn from each other and inspire one another even after all these years and decades, and we are infinitely grateful for that.
When it comes to communications, do you think artificial intelligence and machine learning will ever be able to replace humans and their creativity and adaptability?
MAB: I’m completely certain that that will never happen. It is true that all these technological inventions will ease certain parts of our work, as well as many other jobs, but that was all designed by people and a machine will never be capable of replacing people completely, regardless of the great amount of data it has at its disposal, because it has no experience and doesn’t have the feeling that a human has. Things change so quickly that it isn’t possible for a machine to gather all the information around the world in real time, and even if that does happen, the machine still lacks the experiences, feelings and empathy that form the foundational elements of a human being. Those who are capable of using all these innovations for what they need will be at an advantage.
In recent years, we’ve been constantly on edge due to the pandemic, wars, inflation, economic crises, and other challenges. However, it seems that at least when it comes to the future of communication, there’s no need to worry. Do you share our optimism?
TB: The ability to listen and understand from the basis of what we do in terms of planning or advising clients. In our work with companies and brands, we see on a daily basis that those who develop their business and communication on a foundation of empathy thus strengthen their relations with consumers, users and the community. Empathy plays an important role in PR and in the building and maintaining of relationships with stakeholders. We often describe ourselves as being cautious optimists.