In truth, this is a love story, but it all began with a cultural journey, in the spring of 2002. At the time, Condé Nast Traveller was asking, of Croatia and specifically the island of Vis: “Is this the new Capri?” Just as our storyteller was speaking at a seminar on cultural tourism in Varazdin, heritage city of the Habsburg marches to the north. Then came a cultural festival contribution in Dubrovnik, and an article written from the heart: “Heritage at the Crossroads” (read more...). He had fallen in love with Croatia, and gave his time freely. To independent hotels, to the Institute of Tourism, even to government-inspired think tanks where he spoke on “Brand New Croatia”.

Eventually, love-job became major assignment: to help turn around the government-owned financial agency, FINA, Croatia’s sixth largest employer and now exposed to competition in the open marketplace. Its bold young management wanted FINA marketing to be upgraded and the President asked for a brand story to link all activities. Within a year of appointing brandstory, six months after hearing the chosen story, FINA was relaunched.

On 30 January 2006, every member of the FINA workforce received a CDROM telling the story of Brand New FINA, a carrier bag of aides memoires, and a pebble.

The pebble told a particularly Croatian story – its Adriatic is so clear because of its pebbled shore – of how “little things mean a lot”, or “male stvari puno znace”. This is the story of FINA business, where every tiny detail of finance and administration matters to its clients and thus to FINA’s future. A story of how paying less commission on utility bills adds up to a fortune. Of how shorter queues in FINA branches means better business. In an old Croatian saying, a story of “Zrno po zrno, pogaca. Kamen po kamen palaca.” (“Grain by grain, loaf. Stone by stone, palace”).

In the year that followed, FINA staff responded, often emotionally, to the new communications, open as never before. In the market, FINA campaigns touched customers and increased revenue. Amongst stakeholders and competitors, a new respect was in the air. Croatia’s prestigious CPRA Grand Prix was awarded to FINA for this “Year of Open Communication”, only made possible by its brand story.

Like a pebble cast in the water, so its story creates ripples wherever it is told, present as it is in all FINA communications. And little by little, as FINA becomes more competitive, so it tells a story for the whole economy and for the Croatia we have come to love.

In the light of its success with FINA, brandstory has been asked by the Croatian government to direct four public service campaigns. As the love story unfolds, who knows where the ripples will end?