Saša Savić: Every brand must be part of the culture

Photo: Kristina Štedul Fabac/PIXSELL

One of the world’s most famous names in the advertising industry, Saša Savić, the CEO of the American marketing agency MediaCom, revealed the little secrets of success of the world’s best campaigns at the Weekend and presented his new exciting, witty and somewhat nostalgic novel.

“I have always tried to better spend that investment called advertising and to make our clients satisfied with the sale of their products. The world around us is constantly changing. It is difficult to talk about how new technology is coming and how it will change everything. The process of change is constant. One of my duties is budget predictions. For the last five years, it was not called a budgeting presentation, but a transformation presentation. It’s about finding out what we need to change to be successful. In the last 60 to 70 years, the relationship between advertising and television has been crucial. TV was the simplest and cheapest way to inform millions of people with one message, and it was also the time when television was the beginning and end of our industry. In any case – that time is over. In 2020, viewership increased, but that trend was not realistic because we were forced to be closed in our houses,” said Savić.

Photo: Kristina Štedul Fabac/PIXSELL

Savić emphasized that companies that are ready to take risks achieve better results, and his advice is to increase relevance when creating marketing campaigns. That is, every brand must have a reason for its existence and that reason must be valid. In short, every brand must be part of the culture – and the best example of this is the advertising campaigns of Coca-Cola in the 70s.

As part of Weekend.15, Savić promoted his book “Četvrta violina” (the Fourth Violin), which he says is biographical, but not just about him. Savić decided to write it at the peak of his global marketing career. He said that he thought about it for a long time, and in the last two to three years he found time to dedicate himself to the realization of that idea. He noted that he has been through a lot in the 30 years since he left war-torn Sarajevo, and that the story revolves around the 7 to 8 months he spent in exile. This is precisely the main reason why he gave up all royalties from sales, and he also believes that the difficult stories of people in the Balkans are the reason why there are so many writers compared to the size of the population.