“We are part of the world and, even more, we are actively shaping this world”
New Moment has good reason to remember the last year fondly, primarily due to the number and significance of the awards and recognition it received.
Perhaps that’s why director Branka Conić’s first association with 2017 is as a year that was “magical and the most successful in the history of the agency”.
– New Moment Agency has a tradition as the oldest and most creative agency in the Balkans. We received five Cannes Lion awards at the most prestigious Festival of creativity in Cannes for the project ‘One Book for Peace’, which aims to promote interreligious tolerance and similarities between the two sacred books, the Bible and the Qur’an.
Receiving the Cannes Lion Award is tantamount to winning an Olympic gold medal, so this year we brought five Olympic medals back to our country, in competition with 46,000 projects from around the world, and simultaneously became the first agency in history to bring this kind of recognition to our region.
Success in Cannes is not only success for our agency, rather it is a major breakthrough on the global stage for all creative people from the Balkan region who have shown that they work at a level shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s most developed countries, where budgets for the creative industry are immeasurably higher.
In addition to the Cannes Lions, last year we were also again declared ‘Agency of the Year in Serbia’ by the Serbian Association for Marketing Communications (UEPS) and ‘PR Agency of the Year’ by the Serbian Public Relations Society for the third time.
Creativity, social responsibility and expertise give credibility to our profession and should provide the basis for reputations to be built
New Moment operates in the region, but also on the global market. You have done campaigns on the Canadian, American and Indian markets, as well as cooperating with the market of the Middle East… Compared to Serbia, what are the difference between the standards, modalities, customer requirements and rules on these markets?
– A good idea speaks all of the world’s languages, so the fact that we live in Serbia or anywhere else in the Balkans doesn’t prevent us from getting our own billboards on the streets of New York or Dubai, which happened to us.
Basic rules of the profession are the same the world over, and during this time of the increasing digitisation and automation of processes and even thoughts, it has never been more important than it is today to show the strength of a good idea, the language of the heart and a bright mind.
Creativity is the spice that all great dishes contain. It is the only constant of every success in our work along all meridians.
The year ahead will, in all likelihood, be marked by great technological advancement, especially in the domain of social media, digitisation, new channels of communication etc. In your opinion, to what extent is the Serbian market ready to get involved in these global innovative trends?
– Our market is certainly following the latest trends in the world. Digitisation has also made boundless knowledge possible and created a whole new generation of young professionals who are part of the global scene.
On the other hand, I notice that the more digitally connected and informed we are, the more valuable emotions and creativity are considered. Without them, our job is simply to manufacture advertisements, PR texts, events and press announcements.
Moreover, in addition to technological superiority, the power of our profession lies in our capacity to actively change the world in which we live, and this should be used not only to increase the sales of our advertisers’ brands, but also to influence change in people’s consciousness around the world, and particularly in our region.