For their end-of-the-year special called “Business 2022”, the weekly business magazine Lider has invited different companies and individuals to leave their thoughts on the upcoming year in terms of business plans and trends. Señor got an invitation as well so our Head of creative Jurica shared his vision in the form of top ten events that will mark Señor’s 2022.

This year the advertising site Marketing Mreža has published yet another interesting issue of Adbooka containing the best regional campaigns of the year and articles written by communication experts. Our very creative Vanja Blumenšajn wrote an article about honesty in advertising, and is it more fortunate to fulfill or to enhance, whose pants are on fire and who has the last laugh, find out by clicking here.

The Serbian Kaktus Festival chose The great Croatian naives as one of the examples of good practice of campaigns dealing with media and digital literacy, and for a review on this topic they chose our Head of Creative Jurica.

Vanja Blumenšajn is a Very creative director with many years of experience in advertising. He’s also the co-founder of the creative agency Señor, which has won the Agency of the Year title in Croatia this year. Vanja was named Creative of the Year, four times recognized as Copywriter of the Year, and as one of the best domestic creatives of the decade. Standing out with his imaginative and methodical approach to things, he’s now sharing with us his thoughts on working in the creative industry and its challenges.

A ‘Very creative director’ Vanja Blumenšajn and a ‘Super managing director’ Iva Kaligarić talked with Lider about Señor's success, future plans and trends in the domestic advertising market. Read more below.

After the impressions subsided after the Dani komunikacija, we talked to HURA and revealed how the celebration went, what is our favorite award, what our clients say about our success and how we plan to keep the prestigious title in the coming years.

After winning the title Agency of the year at BalCannes and scooping three runner-up awards at Ideja X, it finally came home. We finally have it, cast-iron proof, something our mums knew all along: Señor is the Agency of the Year!

The young talents of the marketing industry delighted the jury with their project "No cyclist ever" and earned a prestigious award at this year's Young Lions competition powered by Iskon, which this year as well as before aimed to highlight young Croatian talents, while pointing out the importance of sustainable mobility and quality of life.

Nenad Danilović: The end of the calendar and business year is an occasion to talk with leading people from advertising, media and PR agencies about the goals achieved in the previous year, plans for 2021, as well as the “environment factor" in which those same plans should be realized. This time the honor went to Vanja Blumešajn, the very creative director of the Señor agency.

Regarding of the upcoming Exhibition of Croatian Design 19/20, Vizkultura presented Señor's works to its readers. So far, they have already reported on the design of the SUN U musician's album, the Cert.hr campaign and the Gloomy Christmas project. Below are a few others: the branding of the event agency After, the packaging of Olivica olive oil, the design of Señor's website and the identity of the oPoP studio!

In our Media Marketing editorial office, we made an analysis of the campaigns and chose "our" favorite among those created during the time we were in quarantine, working from home and trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our choice is the #firsttime campaign of Zagrebačka banka and the Señor agency. All things considered, this is a unique project whose value will be assessed over the years as “small” entrepreneurs grow, to whom Zaba and Señor have given the wind in their backs. We talked about the #firsttime project, which helps micro small entrepreneurs in tourism, with Iva Barbarić, Marketing Director of Zagrebačka banka and Iva Kaligarić, Super Managing Director at Señor. This is the story of how the creation of the largest online platform for the promotion of undiscovered beauties and unique experiences of Croatia began.

When you hear the word media - do TV, Internet or newspaper immediately pop into your head? Do you ever wonder if print is dead, does anyone still watch TV or should you spend all your budget online? A skilled communicator doesn't waste time on useless discussions. For him – everything's a medium. He chooses the means cleverly and seeks out the best tool to make his idea reach the audience in an interesting and relevant way. His medium may be a bottle, office supplies, a label, a book, a message in the hallway, a T-shirt or… a link.

I've found myself several times lately in situations where I'd be explaining to people what I do (and why) as a psychologist in the world of advertising. It had come to the point where I’d start answering questions regarding what I do for a living by clarifying, in advance, my opinion on manipulation and ethics in advertising, even without being asked to. I’m grateful to everyone who did ask for my opinion, because it led me to engage in a deeper study of the topic and reach the conclusion that it is possible to work in this industry ethically and without manipulation, no matter how demanding it may sometimes seem.

Why does someone, who is not a creative by vocation and probably doesn’t have a lot of affinity for creative work (if we disregard helping out their kid with the occasional art class assignment), feel the need to revise things done by some of the best experts in the Croatian advertising industry (Señor team <3). Let’s not kid ourselves, the conclusion is as simple as it is disheartening: they don’t trust us. 

Nina Trumbić is a Project Manager for a very diverse range of clients – from Hrabri telefon and Jägermeister to Iskon and Atlantic Grupa. She also takes care of the most demanding client – Señor. She is said to have a nose for industry trends and knows about every possible app there is. If they were to print new business cards, Nina’s title, they say, would be The Coolness Consultant. In her spare time, Nina successfully DJs at Radio 101 and at parties under the name Nifty Nina. Regardless of whether you are looking for a recommendation on how to make a kick-ass digital campaign or are trying to find the best place to go clubbing, Nina is your girl.

After we were named the best agency in the region at BalCannes, HURA decided to sit down and have a chat with our very own Very Creative Director Vanja. In the following paragraphs find out what they talked about, what does he think about awards and how did we turn this promo article into Señor’s little ‘critique’ of award festivals. Oh and… don’t forget to tell us what award did you get.

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. We know a couple of copywriters that swear on their awards that it ain’t so. But, the same copywriters would surely agree that Damir’s illustrations speak a hundred languages. That’s why, when he, instead of writing a blog, submitted a selection of his work - there was nothing else for them to do than admit: silence is golden. 

When you try to picture creatives in an advertising agency, you probably imagine them as something between Hunter S. Thompson and Jackson Pollock, guys rolling joints while frantically typing up scripts for your favourite shampoo. And right you are - that is exactly what a regular day at Señor looks like. But besides coming up with creative concepts and communication, there is an additional part of the process that precedes these two and that, in my opinion, is the most interesting.

Iskon and Señor returned home from the recent Days of Communication festival with five awards in the bag: gold and silver in telecommunications, a bronze Effie, Campaign of the Year and the Advertiser of the Year title. Perhaps this result would have come as a surprise if it wasn’t a continuation of the ongoing dominance in the telecom category over the last few years. This collaboration is also a phenomenon of sorts. So far, each joint campaign of Iskon and Señor has won awards. Along with the gold and silver awards at IdejaX, we should add last year’s Golden Effie, a special recognition for best copywriting and BalCannes. This was our motivation to investigate how creative solutions come about and discover all the secrets of this successful creative-business relationship.

Have billboards really run their course? Is there space in the media mix for street banners or only online ones? And where have we come to when the Grand Prix at MIXX goes to outdoor campaigns! There's been a lot of misguided debate lately about online versus offline: which is better and where to allocate budgets? “Say it out loud” by Señor agency is an excellent example of how the public inhabits both of those worlds and how campaigns – in order to be successful – have to successfully merge the two. 

Leading up to D-Day, the festival of creative communications which is taking place at a different time this year, in a different format and as part of a totally new context, which you’ll read about at Vizkultura soon, we’re introducing some of the authors who won awards at the festival – picked up ‘the D-day’ medals. We’re starting with Vanja Blumenšajn, copywriter and creative director, who at the first D-Day took home no less than three awards, including the ‘most important one’ – for Creative of the Year. In addition to the aforementioned awards with independent shine, Vanja can brag with an enviable number of awards from all spheres of the advertising industry (IdejaX, Red dot, Goldendrum, Eurobest, Festo, Effie,…).

Vanja Blumenšajn has been in advertising for more than a decade, most of that time in Imago ad agency as creative director. He was on the jury of Croatia’s biggest advertising festival for seven years, two of those at its helm as president. He won almost all the national and a decent number of international advertising awards (Festo, idejaX, Effie, ADCC, Outward, ADCE, Red Dot, Golden drum, Eurobest, MIAF, SEMPL…). Of all those, he is most proud of - on top of several for the campaign of the year - the award for “creative of the year” at the inaugural D Day and the award for “agency of the year” that he won together with his colleagues at Imago. He realizes that he needs new challenges in life and launches Señor, who wants to make others happy and be happy.