The best advertising doesn’t necessarily look like advertising. It looks like something you want to be a part of – and invite others to join. Something people talk about – from neighbors to the media. Something that makes sense and makes a difference.

Bruketa& is an independent strategic and creative agency with more than 30 years of experience across Central and Southeast European markets. It helps brands define a relevant role in people’s lives and bring that role to life through the entire brand universe, communications, services and customer experience. The agency’s work has been recognized at Cannes Lions, Effie, D&AD, Red Dot and with hundreds of other awards. More important than the awards, however, is what an idea actually does for the business and the people it is intended for.

That is why, at Bruketa&, a solution never starts with a format. The first question is not whether to create a campaign, a digital product, a new identity, an experience or a service, but what problem needs to be solved. Only once the business challenge, the brand context and the real human need behind them are understood do we look for the form of solution capable of making the greatest difference. Sometimes that is communication. Sometimes it is a product, a space or a digital service. And sometimes it is something that did not exist before.

Bruketa& has built its experience in banking and insurance over three decades, working with Zagrebačka banka (UniCredit Group), Addiko Bank across six markets, UniCredit in Hungary, PBZ of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, Raiffeisenbank Croatia, KentBank, Croatia Banka, Pasha Bank and Xalq Bank in Azerbaijan, Prva banka Crne Gore, World Bank Group, Croatia osiguranje, LAQO and GRAWE.

How do you make a century-old bank personal?

How do you give a century-old institution, in the decade following a major economic crisis when trust in banks could no longer be taken for granted, a reason for people to experience it personally rather than simply as an institution?

For Zagrebačka banka’s 100th anniversary in 2014, the answer was not a campaign people would simply watch, but one designed to last literally 100 years. From April to July, memorabilia donated by individuals and companies was collected in bank branches and through social media and stored free of charge in the Time Vault, located at the bank’s headquarters, on the very site where Gradska štedionica – the predecessor of Zagrebačka banka, began operating in 1914.

The vault will not be reopened until 2114. Every participant received a contract printed on specially durable paper. Whoever turns up with that contract 100 years later will receive the item someone entrusted to the bank back in 2014. The message was not merely communicated. It was turned into a tangible promise: this bank plans to still be here in 100 years.

Following the campaign, more than 50% of the public associated Zagrebačka banka with security and trust. Among people who were not customers, 22% expressed an interest in starting a relationship with the bank, while 39% of existing customers wanted to expand their relationship with it. The campaign received numerous awards and was also featured by Ad Age, one of the world’s most influential media brands covering marketing, advertising and media.

When a loan becomes more than just a loan

Some of the agency’s most recent brand experiences were created for its long-standing client Addiko Bank.

In a market where financial products often sound almost identical, Addiko Bank and Bruketa& started with one simple truth: people are not looking for a loan. They are looking for a way to solve a problem or fulfil a desire.

That insight led to a new communication product built around Addiko’s existing cash loan: loans for different moments in life. The result included the “Midlife Crisis Loan”, “Tattoo Removal Loan”, “Best Man Loan”, “Facelift Loan”, “New Hair Loan” and many others.

Each one speaks to a specific real-life situation. And the concept did not remain purely within communication. The loans were presented in physical boxes designed to resemble products on retail shelves, making them physically present at the very places where the need arises – car dealerships, cosmetic surgery clinics, furniture stores and shops of all kinds.

In addition to addressing the tensions customers experience when taking out a loan, the agency worked with Addiko on a completely different obstacle: the inconvenience of physically going to a bank. In early 2019, the first fully digital bank branch in the region was launched, allowing the entire process, from application to electronic signature, to be completed with just a few clicks.Two different problems led to two completely different solutions – precisely because the starting point was not a format, but the customer. The agency also designed a hybrid digital-physical branch model in which customers could independently complete everything they needed through a digital application while having in-person bankers available to assist them. Addiko Bank’s campaigns have been awarded at Effie competitions in both Croatia and Europe.

When positioning becomes an experience

KentBank was repositioned around the insight “The bank where every banker is a personal banker”, with the rebranding winning a Red Dot Award. According to the bank’s 2025 business report, KentBank became the fastest-growing bank in Croatia following the rebrand.

But the idea of a personal relationship was not limited to identity and communication. KentBank focuses on higher-income individuals as well as small and medium-sized businesses, and KentClub became part of that story – a club designed to connect people, give them access to resources and create added value for everyone involved.

A space within the branch was designed specifically for meeting, socializing and exchanging ideas, and month after month it was filled to capacity. It hosted the Festival of Ideas, bringing together people from different business sectors and creating opportunities for audiences eager for new knowledge to learn through the exchange of experiences.

Brand positioning therefore stopped being merely something the bank said about itself. It became something customers could actually experience.

From insurance to experiences people take part in

Another financial subsector in which the agency has extensive experience is insurance. Its collaboration with Croatia Insurance and Croatia Polyclinics has also included projects designed to encourage people to take better care of their health. The Your Posture Is Your Future OOH brand experience for Croatia Polyclinics used an interactive citylight powered by artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze the posture of passers-by in real time. By analyzing eight key points on the body, the system assessed the curvature of the neck, middle and lower sections of the spine and displayed personalized feedback on screen, highlighting potential irregularities. People whose posture showed possible issues were given the option to book an appointment with a physiatrist. AI therefore allowed an advertisement to respond to an individual person, transforming a general message about spinal health into a personally relevant experience.

The campaign was recognized at Cannes, Clio, Red Dot, MIXX Europe, ADC, D&AD and Saniss. It also attracted the attention of the BBC and was covered by LBB in the UK, Ads of the World in the US, Best Ads on TV and The Stable in Australia, Youmark in Italy, The Inspiration in Denmark, Nowymarketing and Proto in Poland, Outdoor in Romania and numerous other media outlets. But the second part of the results was even more important: 106,000 scans and a 46% increase in specialist appointments showed that the experience did more than attract attention – it prompted people to take concrete action. The citylight stopped being merely an advertising space and became the first point in the customer experience.

The combination of artificial intelligence, interactive media and healthcare also formed the basis of Anxiety Meter, a campaign for Croatia Insurance. Starting from the insight that half of Croatian citizens experience anxiety, Croatia osiguranje and Bruketa& decided to bring the subject of mental health quite literally into the street. Together with Go2Digital, they developed Anxiety Meter: a digital citylight equipped with a camera and AI software that used machine learning to analyze facial expressions and, within seconds, display an assessment of the person’s level of concern. Based on that assessment, the system adapted its message to each individual passer-by. Those assessed as having the highest levels of concern were offered a free preventive health check at Croatia Polyclinic. AI therefore enabled personalized communication in real time, turning an encounter with an advertisement into a concrete incentive for people to take better care of their health.

People spent 817% longer interacting with Anxiety Meter than the average dwell time for digital out-of-home advertising, while 8% of the urban population tried it. The campaign also resulted in a 31.22% increase in preventive health check-ups, a 24% rise in purchase intent for Croatia osiguranje products and a 21.8% increase in health insurance policies sold.

Anxiety Meter was recognized at Cannes, MIXX Europe, ADC New York, Campaign Tech Awards, The Drum OOH and numerous other international and local competitions. The project appeared in more than 300 media outlets worldwide, including Insider and the US networks FOX, ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as the Washington Psychiatric Society. It was also covered by numerous industry publications including the international marketing magazine Contagious, Adobo Magazine, LBBonline and Spain’s Marketing Directo.

For Croatia osiguranje’s 133rd anniversary in 2017, Zagreb’s entire Grič Tunnel was transformed into a multimedia time machine spanning 133 years of intertwined Croatian history, the history of the city of Zagreb and Croatia osiguranje, as well as the personal histories of citizens and visitors. The exhibits were organized across 13 decades, with multimedia and scenographic elements transforming each period into a distinct emotional experience.

Through social media, we collected 5,370 personal stories and incorporated them into the exhibition. It became the first historical exhibition where there was room not only for famous people and major events, but for every one of us. With 103,000 visitors, it became the most visited exhibition in Croatia in 2017, with visitors spending an average of 30 minutes inside. The project generated 4,958,787 impressions through earned media coverage and 616,314 reactions on social media.

Seven years later, to mark the 140th anniversary of Croatia’s oldest and largest insurance company, attention turned towards the future.

The Croatia 2074 project allowed visitors to travel forward in time to the year 2074 and catch a brief glimpse of the future. It was created in collaboration with around 30 leading Croatian scientists, experts and artists, with the aim of encouraging public debate and more responsible thinking about Croatia’s future.

What connects these projects is neither their medium nor their technology. It is their way of thinking: none of them is a conventional campaign you simply watch. They are experiences people take part in.

When brand character becomes a service

LAQO is Croatia’s first fully digital insurance brand. In 2020, it was given a recognizable face in the form of Pavle Pauq, a spider character that gave a product with no physical branches a personality and created a more human connection with customers.

In 2023, Pavle Pauq took on a new role. In collaboration with Infobip and using a GPT model on Microsoft Azure, LAQO launched an AI assistant that answers customers’ questions through WhatsApp, in the voice of the familiar character, 24 hours a day. The personification of the brand thus became a conversational interface, turning a recognizable character into part of customer service. In the age of AI bots, we discovered that people may not like talking to “fake” humans – but apparently they have no problem talking to a spider.

According to Infobip, the AI assistant took over 30% of customer enquiries, while 90% of enquiries were resolved within just three to five messages. The workload of the contact centre was reduced by 10%, allowing the team to dedicate more time to complex cases and new customers.

Industries change. The principle remains the same.

We apply the same way of thinking outside the financial industry.

The starting point is always the problem that needs to be solved. Only then do we decide whether the answer should take the form of communication, a product, a service, technology or an experience.

Slovenian winery Radgonske gorice, with 170 years of sparkling wine production behind it, wanted to increase its presence in international markets. Instead of a traditional campaign, Bruketa& proposed creating a new product based on the insight that exposure to light can negatively affect the aroma of sparkling wine. The result was Untouched by Light, a sparkling wine produced, packaged and tasted entirely in darkness, designed to capture the attention of international distributors and media.

The project generated more than 400 pieces of global media coverage, including features in The Washington Post and Bloomberg, and in 2021 won a Lion at Cannes Lions, the world’s leading festival of creativity.

For pasta producer Marodi, the agency created A Soup to Remember in 2024. To contribute to the preservation of Međimurska popevka, a traditional song form listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, a limited-edition collection of five books was created. Each came with a special package of Marodi alphabet soup pasta containing exactly the number of letters needed to compose the song featured in the book. The project won a Lion at Cannes Lions.

For Hrvatski Telekom, the HT GPS Locator campaign connected technology and product with the real-world problem of missing pets. The idea gave pet owners greater peace of mind through a GPS locator while at the same time opening up a broader conversation around missing dogs.

The campaign attracted international attention, generating more than 20 international and 30 domestic media features, including coverage by Ad Age, Adland, Ads of the World, Lürzer’s Archive and Little Black Book. It generated 1.39 million social media views and more than 6,300 interactions with the ads and, most importantly from a business perspective, delivered a 288% increase in sales and a 38% improvement in brand perception. The project received awards at Cresta, Creativepool, BalCannes and numerous other international and local competitions.

For A1 Telekom, Bruketa& developed Lappsus, a mobile application designed to help users improve their spelling. Every time users unlocked their phone, the app presented them with a spelling question and two possible answers. Every correct answer was rewarded with additional mobile data. Within three weeks of its launch, it became the most popular Croatian app on Google Play, with more than 50,000 downloads. The project received a special WPPed Cream Award from WPP in the category of progressive use of mobile technologies, competing among work from more than 230 agencies across the WPP network worldwide.

For IT company Span, the agency carried out a rebranding in 2025 centred around three strategic areas: cybersecurity, cloud and AI. The new brand strategy came with a visual identity that “never sleeps”, communicating the company’s activities in protecting its clients in real time. Its key element, Priority Star, is a dynamic infographic displaying the number of security alerts and support requests, symbolizing Span’s 24/7 presence and operational readiness. By the time employees arrive at work, the sign at the office entrance already tells them what kind of night the company has had. The rebranding was recognized at Ideja X, BalCannes and Zagreb Design Week and was featured on Ads of the World.

An idea does not have to end as an advertisement

Across different industries and three decades of work, media, technologies and customer behaviours have changed. But the principle has remained the same: start with a problem worth solving, not with a format that needs to be produced. Sometimes a brand needs a campaign. Sometimes it needs a new product, service or customer experience. Sometimes technology can remove an obstacle, a physical space can create a community, and a brand character can become an actual channel through which customers interact with a brand. That is why creativity is at its most valuable when it is not constrained by a predefined output. When it combines an understanding of business and people with design, communication and technology, it can do more than attract attention. It can give people a reason to spend time with a brand, make something easier for them, inspire them to take action or create new value that did not exist before. That is the common denominator behind these projects and the way Bruketa& approaches its clients’ challenges: not simply looking for a different way for a brand to say something, but identifying what it can actually do to become more relevant, useful or valuable to people. Because sometimes the best advertising is precisely the kind people do not experience as advertising at all.