Andrea Antunović started her story in Imago Ogilvy right after finishing the Faculty of Economics. From the assistant position all the way to Account Manager (and a team leader) a lot of projects pushed her, the next one always more interesting and more exciting than the previous one. During the last four years she has been successfully cooperating with a client in Dubai that places ice creams in the whole MENA region, so she “sacrificed” herself and travelled to Dubai in order to try those ice creams and do the campaign, the big VR campaign on the UAE market being one of them. Among the dearest and the most difficult clients is Imago Ogilvy itself, for which she leads the corporate communication and hopes the shoemaker doesn’t always wear the worst shoes. Read below an interview she gave for regional portal Media Marketing.
What inspired you to join the advertising world? What did you find in it?
Andrea Antunović: The advertising looked fun and a little bit intimidating to me, which I liked a lot. I always had the impression we do frivolous things in a very serious manner. We use creative ideas in order to achieve tangible and not at all creative business goals. And sometimes we manage to create ideas which could change or improve the world around us.
What did you want to become when you grow up? Did your dreams come true?
Andrea Antunović: I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I only know I don’t want to do the same things every day (in Excel), and since advertising never sleeps, maybe that’s it. We’ll see.
In communication for variety of brands Imago Ogilvy works for, you put s a lot of focus on the wellbeing of people and nature surrounding them, on emotions, especially love. It looks like the brands can communicate love freely and live of it. Will love one day overcome the world? Can our industry contribute to that change?
Andrea Antunović: I think the emotions steer everything, so we must not allow the cynicism to prevail, especially in this business. We have an incredible possibility to touch people with ideas, which is, at the same time, the most responsible and most rewarding part of the job. In Imago Ogilvy we create a project only for ourselves whenever we have the chance. Such projects have double positive influence, on the consumer from one side, and on the team working on it from the other side.
What is it that is missing within the relationship between the agency and the client in order to be filled with love?
Andrea Antunović: Sometimes, only a bit more trust and an open communication is all that’s missing. All in all, I have nothing bad to report regarding the agency–client relationship. I always try to be understanding and provide the best services and advices, treating every project (and a brand) like my own.
What’s the biggest daily challenge of working in the agency and which superpowers do you use to conquer it?
Andrea Antunović: Where to draw a line between dreams and reality? I think this is ultimately always a challenge for a creative agency. Ideas and wishes are one thing, and the market and budgets another one. I believe we almost always find a common point to reconcile everything. I try to be a realist and a dreamer in everyday work, which probably isn’t exactly acknowledged as a superpower, but it helps.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while working for the agency?
Andrea Antunović: The hardest and the most important lesson I’ve learned is putting things into perspective. When I was a lot younger and a lot greener (than this photo) I thought every project is extremely urgent and important – an absolute priority. It was exhausting and not at all productive. At the moment when I breathed in and said to myself: Everything is important, but some things are more important now, and some will be important a bit later, my life became a little easier. Basically, a typical agency story, I learned how to adjust deadlines and treat the projects in a cooler way. It looks like the formula works, since I recently became a team leader in Imago Ogilvy, so now I help set priorities to a larger number of people.
What is your favourite project type?
Andrea Antunović: I love all my children the same. All projects have taught me something, but I can single out a couple of special ones. I have been working for four years now on the London Dairy ice cream brand, which is initially from Dubai, and conducts business over the entire MENA market. It is incredible to work on communications for a market substantially different and bigger than yours. We are trying to be up to date with all trends, limitations and possibilities of the market, as if leading double lives. A bonus is that, from time to time, we have to try those ice creams, in Dubai. I’ll mention one more project. I hope my clients (if they’re reading this) won’t get mad, but one of the most challenging (and thus one of the most favourite) projects I lead is Imago Ogilvy communications. It includes everything from new visual identity, website, public relations, social media, etc. How to communicate on behalf of the agency that lives of communications? They still haven’t removed me from the project, so I presume I’m good at it. I would recommend to anyone to do something like that for his or her agency, since a lot can be learned from it. I have so much more to mention, but the answer would become an essay, which is why I’ll stop myself. All in all, I like different projects, those that come without instructions so when the team gets together, we first look at each other and say – now what? Possibilities created here are always inspiring.
What is your passion outside the agency life?
Andrea Antunović: I love what everyone loves. Watching Netflix, and tell I read books. Travel, but not as much as I would want.
The original article is available on the link.