OOH IN A CAGE WITH BISONS & BUFFALOS

During the studies of comparative and world literature at the Faculty of Philology I became interested in marketing, which, from my perspective at that time, seemed a new and exciting profession and I knew that I would like to pursue a career in marketing. Immediately after I graduated in 2005, I started working in International Metropolis Media, a company specialised in outdoor advertising, as a sales associate. Later I continued my studies and received my Master’s degree, but did not continue further studies, because I realised that I was not attracted by an academic career.

Not everything in the world of marketing was like I imagined, but it was interesting and exciting. There were some unexpected situations, such as the one that I will always remember.

Soon after I had taken up employment, I received a call from Belgrade Zoo Park. At that time, our company had double face billboards on the walls of the Zoo Park in Tadeuša Košćuška Street. Outside faces were rented by the company, while the inside faces were used by the Zoo Park for their own purposes. They wanted to put new posters on the occasion of the Zoo Park anniversary and sent their designs to us to organise poster printing and pasting up. After that we were supposed to make an arrangement with the Zoo Park employees to let our technical team in to paste up the posters. I requested that the animals should be moved from the area where the billboards were installed in order that our men could do their job. The man with whom I communicated answered: “Madam, we cannot move these animals, but we can arrange zookeepers to be there”. Then I asked: “Excuse me, what animals are there?” , and I got the answer: “Bisons and buffalos. There is no place we can move them, but zookeepers will be there.”

And, I was thinking: “How did I find myself in a situation to send the guys into a cage with bisons (buffalos) to paste up a poster?”

I didn’t know that it was a routine task, because I was new and my worry about the safety of the men who pasted up posters provoked laughter of my colleagues who had already been used to solving various problems in the field.

What I like most about this business is its constant up-to-dateness and topicality.

The first type of that up-to-dateness and topicality is related to the contents. From the latest mascara and car models to the opening of retail chains, we are always informed two or three months in advance when campaigns are booked. Even earlier for big launches. Of course, agencies are informed before us, each for its client.

Somehow all the information pours into OOH and thus we have a review of what’s happening in all industries. We are grateful for this unique opportunity and we carefully keep the confidential information of all our clients.

When it comes to the form, although many people think that OOH medium had got its definite form a long time ago, during the last years we showed that the form was also subject to up-to-dateness and topicality. We have introduced LED and LCD media and enabled the connection with Internet and new technologies. Thus, we, as a company, but also as the OOH market, keep pace with the latest world trends in the industry.

Although I have worked in sales and outdoor advertising for 14 years, I have never been bored. It is dynamic every single moment.

One more significant progress for this market was the first OMEX research that we carried out in cooperation with IPSOS and presented to the professional community in 2015. It was the first research on the effects of OOH campaigns in this region.

I came to Alma Quattro after its merger with Metropolis in 2008. The two sales departments had officially met at SEMPL festival in Portorož, before we moved to the new premises in 20 Dositejeva Street. I wondered how we would fit in with the new business collective, whether there would be tensions, but actually there were no problems. We have got along well from the very beginning.

I soon realised that there was a family atmosphere in Alma. In our everyday communication there is an unburdening comfort that makes us do our work more efficiently. Besides, we are here one for another in all situations, good as well as bad ones.

In Alma everybody makes effort to maintain that spirit of togetherness in his or her own way. For a long time my contribution, as well as Sandra’s, was to organise birthday parties of the employees and to buy a small gift on behalf of the company. I also cared about cultural life of our employees and their families by booking tickets for the theatre, cinema, and other cultural events.

I started my career in Alma as the Client Service Manager; I kept track of campaigns after their posting on the network, informed clients on installation/posting, and responded to their possible objections and complaints. At that time reporting was slow, because billboards were photographed, the photographs were sent on a CD, one week or sometimes even two weeks after the beginning of a campaign. In the meantime, we have upgraded this part of business and today we have real-time documented reports. Due to the nature of this business, back then I was in constant contact with clients during the campaign periods.

On that position I met the majority of our clients and learnt a lot about them, their needs, ways of thinking, etc. It was an excellent preparation for the position of the sales manager.

I learnt most about the business through everyday work with clients and colleagues from the sales team, who were far more experienced than me. Important opportunities for development and advancement were seminars and conferences that we regularly attended, but also specially organised trainings intended only for Alma Quattro’s sales department. The company still nourishes the same approach to professional training and development of its employees as well as other participants in the market, and it actively participates in the development of this profession/sector.

Through my work I met and found my love. We collaborated several years on the realisation of campaigns on our network, he worked with the agency that rented the media. Five years ago we started collaborating more intensively on a large retail client, and later we started dating.

As a result of this love, one little girl will come into this world in October, and this is the reason for my absence in the year when the company has its jubilee.