Business / agencies
Croatian agency leaders gathered in Rovinj
The future is, with the continuation of quality work – optimistic.
On the 25th and 26th November 2021, leading names of the Croatian communications industry gathered in Rovinj and toasted creativity, perseverance and success, at the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj.
Education and networking were some of the main focuses of HURA in 2020 and 2021, so the participants of this year’s CEO gathering had the opportunity to listen to exclusive lectures.
Simon Cook, who has worked in the branded communications industry and Cannes Lions for over a decade and Daniel Knapp, Chief Economist of IAB Europe, focused on the business development, offered interesting economic forecasts.
Mirjana Samardžić Novoselec, Member of the Management Board of Apsolon, spoke about the readiness of Croatian companies for the upcoming green transition in a lecture given by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and Ivan Stefanac, Global Creative Effectiveness Lead at YouTube, presented trends leading content marketing.
HURA has once again shown that the voice of the Croatian communications industry is relevant and robust, with a record of 54 members.
The results achieved in the previous two years, the look of the industry in the future, changes awaiting market communications – these are just some of the topics dedicated to the annual CEO meeting and management of leading communications agencies, organised by the Croatian Association of Market Communications (Croatian: Hrvatske udruge društava za tržišno komuniciranje, HURA).
The past two years of HURA’s Management Board mandate, which together with Executive Director Dunja Ivana Ballon and President Anđela Buljan Šiber consists of Vanja Bertalan, Rajna Cuculić, Jelena Fiškuš and Kristina Laco, have been marked by atypical challenges, and HURA’s member agencies have shown that the work of many lobbying activities, focusing on specific issues and united action that goes beyond the established framework can indeed be fruitful.
In 2020, internal surveys of member forecasts showed devastating predictions for business. As the main difficulties, members pointed out uncertainty, cancellation of projects, and the need for creating new approaches to their work. The majority of members still managed to adapt, design new services and optimise their businesses.
That’s confirmed by the overall results achieved, which are better than predicted. The total revenues of agencies dealing with market communication and media buying in a problematic 2020 amounted to 1.766 billion kunas.
Value is not always measurable by numbers, but they also show the importance of agencies’ work for the economy’s progress. Member agencies, which represent more than 75% of advertising budgets in Croatia, despite fluctuations, have maintained a total of 1160 employees, and continuous success proves that the communications industry is of great importance for the development of the domestic economy.
In addition to past challenges, a big reason to celebrate was the awareness of the strength of the united HURA members, which helped to overcome difficult moments, celebrate joint successes at the summer awards ceremony and empower for further business progress.
With the continuation of quality work, the future is very optimistic: the joint plan for 2022 includes continued growth with education and research, advocacy for the interests of agencies and the communications industry as a whole, and the celebration of creativity.
