Gordan Turković, co-owner and CEO of the CTA komunikacije reckons that over the past years, particularly last year, thanks to the government self-employment grants, there was an evident trend of founding small communication agencies. A part of them had a clear goal and was connected to the clients they had previously worked with, within a larger agency. His agency, he stresses, has not used self-employment measures, nor has not taken over any clients from the agency he had worked in prior to founding CTA komunikacije. They had a fresh start.
Place on the market
“In order to find their place on the Croatian market, small agencies must be more flexible, faster and more creative than larger agencies that have been there many years. Our agency uses a comprehensive communication approach. We design and implement integrated campaigns and, depending on the needs of the project, offer public relations services, digital marketing, development of creative marketing concepts, graphic design, production of audio and visual content, planning and media buying and education, as well as web design and other web solutions “, Turković explains and adds:”Our clients so far come from sectors such as health and pharmacy, fast-growing delivery industry, trade, technical protection, tourism, investments, construction, public administration and associations. Despite the fact that we have been operating for only two years, we have managed to achieve significant revenue growth last year, despite the crisis.” Turković believes that important references CTA komunikacije has received in a short time are much more important for the agency than its growth. In his sector, he has noticed, there is a trend to digitize and automate everything that used to be done manually and analogously. “Everything turns into a mobile app that makes people’s lives easier, enables them to avoid going to a teller window or unnecessary paperwork. The communications industry has been working with the IT industry ever more closely. Over the past ten years, I have witnessed modifications in public relations, social media, and advertising. People use these gadgets non-stop and increase our chance of sending them messages.”
Big leap
“I would say that this is as big a leap in approach to marketing campaigns as the one in the Mid-Twentieth Century when agencies in the United States realized that television was increasingly present in households and that they must have their ads on that medium, otherwise they would lose the race with their competitors. Therefore, one of our main preoccupations is to anticipate new trends in communications and apply them to the markets in which we work “, Turković points out. When asked whether it is better to be a specialized niche agency or a large system, he says that at this moment there is still room for everyone but warns that the “room” will be significantly reduced in the near future. “Clients already feel the need to get all communication services from one company. Personally, I prefer that our colleagues at CTA komunikacije, i.e. our project managers, understand how the whole process works and know what they can ask and receive in order to achieve their strategic goal, e.g. from a designer” he notes.
Crisis situation
Turković believes that in both public and private sector there are different situations, because there are still individuals or companies that do not fully understand what the communications industry does and to what extent can a good strategic communication improve their business. “If we talk, i.e. about the public relations segment, some still refer to it as those who write something and tell us where we should sit at events. Many of them become aware of the importance of our profession only when a communication expert pulls them out of a crisis situation or designs a campaign that results in someone finally paying attention to their products or services. There are companies that still do not have departments for dealing exclusively with communication and in the public sector, especially local and regional self-government, officials remember to communicate their projects only a few months before the election. Many are baffled when they lose those projects” Turković concludes.
Source: Jutarnji list (printed edition March 12, 2021)
