We are moving on to our next campaigns while keeping up with digital marketing trends since they literally make the industry go round these days, and can be extremely essential to any business success
We plan to maintain the logic of a “boutique agency” that allows us to focus on the client’s industry and niche and centre our work on higher quality of strategic and creative projects. Besides that, as business owners, we like to personally dedicate ourselves to each client. We think their brands deserve it. At the same time, we plan to strengthen the creative part of our team and to continue cooperating with our networking partners,” said Jelena Zvekić and Daniela Bucalo, owners of Smart Agency.
How much have bloggers and influencers changed marketing trends locally and globally?
Jelena: Influencers and bloggers have long been a staple in the communication mix because, in addition to achieving the goal of each campaign, which is having direct access to a narrowly defined target group that is in line with brand goals, their engagement is usually more favourable than other forms of the communication mix. Therefore, we have a double effect here and for a smaller budget, we can communicate more directly with the audience. There is always the question of the depth of communication and the effect because such content is often consumed superficially, where the followers’ attention is focused on the influencer itself, more than on the brand. Improvisation has no place here and therefore often, in this type of campaign, we have a situation where the client corrects the content to mutual satisfaction, i.e. to the satisfaction of the influencer, the agency and the client.
What is crucial to achieving good marketing effects – quality service/product or rather a well-devised campaign?
Jelena: I would say that the client’s commitment to “push” the prepared campaign through to the end and to dedicate an appropriate budget for it is crucial, as well as to link it with other elements of the marketing and sales mix because one without the other makes no sense. Sometimes it happens in practice that the client gives us a brief and we develop and launch a good campaign, but it lasts for a short time and it does not result in good sales. In that case, the effects are absent. But if a well designed campaign, properly implemented by the agency and lasts long enough thanks to the use of the right communication mix and connects with the entire business, the effect is simply inevitable.
What are the challenges in devising a good, effective campaign for a company?
Daniela: The biggest challenges are the two “i’s” – the idea and the inspiration. If there is inspiration, and before that good motivation, the right idea will happen. After we come up with the campaign’s idea, we must have a real, innovative design that will accompany it. This is where the third “i” – innovation – comes in. It sometimes takes some time to find that “line” that connects the client’s expectations with the campaign’s idea and the way the agency’s creative and design teams will realize it. But when that happens, all that we need to do to create a good campaign is to have a dedicated team that continues to work and organize things in the right way.
How much can marketing help increase sales?
Jelena: Previously, the only problem with this was the metrics themselves – namely, how to measure the effect of marketing on sales growth. As online advertising and online sales became dominant, and as we got precise tools for measuring the results of online campaigns, this metric is no longer questionable. In terms of classic offline retail, we still rely on indirect techniques to measure this contribution.
“Client’s commitment to “push” the prepared marketing campaign towards market through all channels and to dedicate an appropriate budget and time for it, is crucial in succeeding of any campaign”
How did the pandemic period affect the operations of your agency and to what extent?
Daniela: We have been committed from the very beginning to forming a network organization with great partner companies, rather than creating an independent, large organization. This time we were allowed to be flexible, and the pandemic did not jeopardize our work. In the first moments of uncertainty, the clients paused their investments in media campaigns, but they reverted to their earlier plans with the next campaigns. The circumstances were such that we got a lot of completely new, creative tasks, so the agency has been functioning rather smoothly.
What new skills have you developed and applied as an agency since the onset of the pandemic?
Jelena: At the onset of the pandemic, we happened to be at the epicentre of projects that focused on software development. We were creating online trade fairs and appearances on a global level in the fashion, clothing and footwear industry, which spontaneously introduced us to the developer world. We have developed great things with one partner organization and client. By doing so, we entered a completely new world of software development and implementation.
What are the agency’s plans and goals for the next period?
Daniela: We plan to maintain the logic of a “boutique agency” that allows us to focus on the client’s industry and niche and centre our work on higher quality strategic and creative projects. Besides that, as business owners, we like to personally dedicate ourselves to each client. We think their brands deserve it. At the same time, we plan to strengthen the creative part of our team and to continue cooperating with our networking partners. We are moving on to our next campaigns while keeping up with digital marketing trends since they literally make the industry go round these days, and can be extremely essential to any business success.