For the past nine years, the student conference “Marketing Madness” has brought together proactive creatives and successful professionals from the world of marketing and public relations, offering them the opportunity to exchange knowledge, ideas, and experiences. The first day of the conference, titled “PR Madness,” is dedicated to lectures and real-world case studies, with one of the speakers being Gordan Turković, who presented a campaign that changed the law with zero budget, aiming to break the myths surrounding the profession itself.
The campaign “This Truely Matters”, created in cooperation with the “Brački pupoljci” Association, aimed to urgently amend the law on transportation in coastal maritime traffic to ensure free ferry rides for island children with developmental disabilities and facilitate their trips for therapy on the mainland.
“Thanks to strong engagement based on integrated communication tools and the support of citizens and all those backing the initiative, the campaign resonated on social media and in the media for seven months, increasing the visibility of the issue in the public space,” said Gordan Turković.
In the end, the campaign successfully influenced the amendment of the law and helped secure rights for other groups of people with disabilities. The campaign received numerous awards, including being named the best communication campaign in Europe in 2020 at the European Excellence Awards, winning the prestigious “Golden World Awards for Excellence” from the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the top domestic PR award, the Grand PRix from the Croatian Public Relations Association (HUOJ), a Bronze “Effie Awards Croatia” and “Eventiada IPRA Golden World Awards”.
“We turned the story around, created petitions, and applied pressure on the government. If you have the channels and the knowledge, you can help. When someone comes to you and says, ‘Help me’ – help them. The money you spend at the bar or on goods is not worth as much as one human life. For these people, a new life began” emphasized Gordan.
