EMBA Graduate Uros Gorican about Brands as Storytellers

Uroš Goričan, Creative Director at Publicis Groupe Slovenia, has now successfully finished his Executive MBA program at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. He attended as the winner of the Dragan Sakan/ Golden Drum Scholarship, in honor of a creative legend in the Balkans region. In his thesis, he explored “Brands as Storytellers” from a strategic and business perspective.

Uros’ thesis begins by examining three of the most dynamic areas in brand marketing today: branded content, storytelling, and new media content production. This is prelude to his proposal of the idea of the ‘brand storyworld’ as providing key elements for successfully telling stories and building brands. 

After his thesis presentation, he spoke to us about his EMBA experience:

When did the EMBA journey start for you?

My first module started in September 2011. 

What caught your interest? 

A couple of years before I actually started with the studies I read an article about the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, and my first reaction was "I want to be part of this!" It was the idea of giving the experts in creative industries business and leadership knowledge and skills that immediately caught my interest. It was exactly what I felt I was missing at that time.

Please describe your thesis in 3 sentences. 

In my thesis "Brands as Storytellers" I am diving into the field of branded content. I wanted to explore what brands can learn from storytellers and the media/ entertainment industry; from a storytelling, strategic and business perspective. My aim was to design a simple model for brands that will help them align the storytelling elements with their core essence and also to serve as a tool when they decide to put content at the forefront of their brand strategy and start to create their own content. 

What has been your favorite EMBA moment?

For me the most interesting moments happened between the modules - when you start (sub/conscientiously) using some of the learnings from school and you see it works. But during the modules it is all about the people - people you learn from, share the module with and exchange the views and ideas.