New Mastercard study
A typical Serb prefers summer to winter holidays, would rather call than text their friends, enjoys spending New Year and Christmas at home with family rather than travelling for holidays, and is more likely to use Cyrillic over Latin scribe. These are the results of the today presented new study Put what you care for first, that Mastercard commissioned in November 2018 with the goal of understanding the preferences and issues of Serbs in their everyday lives, as well as what are the areas of improvement in their local communities.
The study has shown that honesty is the highest value for Serbian people, with 39% of respondents putting it first. Honesty is followed by friendship (18%), independence (10%), reliability (9%), and dedication (7%).
We often talk about Serbia as the land of sports thanks to the numerous championships won by our athletes and teams, so it is no wonder that for 24% of Serbs, sports is their passion. Travelling comes in a close second (23%), followed by music (11%) and cooking & gastronomy (10%).
Time for oneself is what Serbs most typically lack (14%), followed by time to relax (13%), and they also say that non-material things and experiences are what counts the most as 1 in 3 respondents say that one smile is the best way to make somebody’s day. People also feel better after reading a good book or watching a TV show (16%), enjoying a good walk (15%) or being able to share the success of the people they love (13%).
Put what you care for the first study also looked into what Serbs perceive as an issue in their local community and 1 in 4 of the respondents stated it is the financial situation, 13% say that people are not motivated, while 1 in 10 claims that we need to be more polite and considerate one to another. Serbs also perceive issues in their local healthcare system, such as big crowds in waiting rooms, as well as the lack of care for the environment.
Mastercard’s study looked into how Serbs see different stakeholders’ roles in making changes in the community. Individuals would like to change the rude habits such as not giving a seat to pregnant women or elderly on public transportation, cutting the lines or littering (13%) and make the community more motivated to change and improve (11%). When it comes to the role of the state in making local communities better, Serbs say that improving the healthcare system should be the priority (14%), followed by motivating people (12%), providing more local investments (8%) and improvements in the educational system (8%). Serbs want to see private companies motivate the local community to make improvements (13%), but also to invest in healthcare (11%) and environmental protection (11%).
Understanding that local communities are the hotspots of our everyday lives, Mastercard is offering Serbian people a chance to contribute to their community by identifying one issue that they and their community care for. As of December 1st, people can submit their proposals onto Mastercard Serbia Facebook or Instagram pages, describing what it is that would need improvement in their community, and the authors of the top five most inspirational stories will be rewarded with 5,000 EUR each on a Mastercard payment card that will help resolve or substantially contribute to the resolution of the identified issue.
Jelena Ristić, Country Manager for Serbia, Montenegro and BiH, Mastercard, stated: “We are parts of the same community – we live here, we do business here, we experience things together and make lasting memories together here. So why not do something meaningful that will make this joint community better? By giving the freedom of decision-making to Serbian people, we enable them to actually put what they love first and exercise the sense of togetherness, trust and joint achievements. Let’s start something priceless together. “
Winners will be announced in January 2019. Jovan Memedović, a renowned TV author and traveller, who is Mastercard brand ambassador for this campaign, will help in selecting the most inspirational stories.
On this occasion, Jovan said: “It is high time that we started building stronger collective awareness on our buildings, neighbourhoods, both in the countryside and in the city. Also, we need to bring back the faith in the fact that positive changes are possible and that they can evolve from an idea of an ordinary man, and that there are people who will support such ideas. I can’t wait for the proposals and it is a great honour to be a part of this Mastercard campaign.”