Üsküdar University Faculty of Communication, Department of Advertising and Üsküdar University Human-Centered Communication Application and Research Center (İLİMER) hosted Puck Global Agency President Haluk Erkmen as the guest of the interview titled ‘Be Original in Advertising, Be Successful’. In the event sponsored by ADforce Advertising Foundation, Haluk Erkmen spoke about the changes in the advertising industry. Erkmen stated; “The advertising industry is changing now. 'Skipped' is its biggest herald. Previously, advertising was something much loved and much watched.”
“We all need to think big”
Emphasizing that in the advertising industry, one becomes famous through their work, Haluk Erkmen said; “No matter what you do, if you're not doing beautiful, memorable work, you have no importance in the industry. I learned this in this industry: time is just a concept. Time actually has no relation to anything. Do a lot of work in a short time, and you'll have time left for yourself. 'Advertising is a job done until midnight. It's a terrible profession' – that's not true. Those are lies. The lies of people who can't get work done quickly. I worked at the most challenging agencies. I never left later than 7 PM. Let's not just think of Turkey. In fact, all of us need to think big. Why shouldn't we be successful abroad? What are we lacking? We're not lacking anything. We have perfectly international brands. Domestic brands are now international too. Brands have a reputation. If you do smart work, you can be successful abroad. Think big, don't just think of Turkey. Think big for your work too.”
“Our job is to make a difference, to do work nobody has seen”
Emphasizing that there are good traumas as much as bad ones and that these can be useful in the sector, Erkmen said; “They say in journalism, 'a dog biting a man is not news, but a man biting a dog is news.' For us, it's like a man trying to bite a dog and the dog flying to Mars – our job is to create a difference. To do work nobody has seen. Advertising, in my definition, is a trauma. Traumas are not always bad. Sometimes there are good traumas too. If you stay memorable, you succeed.”
“Previously, there was an advertisement format on television, serial films were made”
Haluk Erkmen pointed out that advertisements that used to last for hours are now condensed into six seconds; “Advertising is changing. 'Skipped' is its biggest herald. I've been an advertiser for 24 years. Previously, there was an advertisement format on television. Mostly, serial films were made. People would wonder about the next film. People would wonder about the process, 'He fell in love with the girl, what will happen in the next commercial?' There were even programs for this. Names like Gülse Birsel and Öykü Serter would create one-and-a-half-hour advertisement programs, collecting commercials from around the world. You'd be watching an hour and a half of commercials, and another commercial would interrupt during the watch. People watched with affection; they really liked Gülse Birsel and Öykü Serter's presentations. Today, they are still important people in our lives. But their starting point was advertising. This situation is interesting. Previously, advertising was something much loved and much watched. Today, there's a very significant difference with social media. It's very difficult to be interesting on social media. Either you genuinely benefit from the blessings of social media, or you expose people to advertising. At the point where you expose people to advertising, what I said ('trauma') comes into play: you have so little time! What will you do in those six seconds to catch that person? They are already counting those six seconds to skip. What will you do there to make that person interested in your product, to make it stick in their mind? This is the issue now. Social media, digital advertising, it's all built upon this.”