Robert Gavrilovic is the Director of Online Advertising at Rainfactory. The company is a “full-service digital agency that operates as a Marketing Department for growing brands.”
For his work, Robert Gavrilovic brings his specialties in “Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Ads, and all things online advertising.”
Throughout his career, Robert Gavrilovic has proven himself as an “experienced and highly creative online advertising and growth marketing professional.”
What drives Robert Gavrilovic is his desire to discover “insights within data to produce successful, measurable, integrated advertising communications.”
Likewise, Robert Gavrilovic is “passionate about helping clients and companies develop successful marketing strategies, discover new advertising channels, and optimize their most effective and efficient campaigns.”
Rainfactory is a “relatively young company,” but Robert Gavrilovic says they stand out because they have “quickly carved out a reputation as one of the most effective crowdfunding agencies.”
For example, Robert Gavrilovic says they helped one of their first clients become “one of the highest-grossing campaigns ever at that time on a major crowdfunding platform.”
Thanks partly to the work done by Robert Gavrilovic and Rainfactory, the client “later graced the cover of Time Magazine as one of the 25 Best Inventions of the Year.”
This success proves that Robert Gavrilovic and Rainfactory could succeed with a “scrappy handful of individuals,” who have “helped define that space as a viable marketing channel.”
Check out more interviews with advertising professionals here.
First, find a role and company you love. Robert Gavrilovic, Rainfactory
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Robert Gavrilovic: For a relatively young company, we quickly carved out a reputation as one of the most effective crowdfunding agencies.
The best example of this was one of our first clients, who we helped become one of the highest-grossing campaigns ever at that time on a major crowdfunding platform.
This client, partly due to that success, later graced the cover of Time Magazine as one of the 25 Best Inventions of the Year.
This demonstrates how a scrappy handful of individuals, within a relatively new space, quickly helped define that space as a viable marketing channel.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Robert Gavrilovic: First, find a role and company you love.
If the role does not fit you and the company does not excite you, you will likely experience burn out hard and fast. However, burnout still happens.
There are countless tips and tricks to mitigate burnout, but within the pressure-packed agency world, I’ve found one rule to live by: underpromise and overdeliver.
Clients are demanding and we want to satisfy those demands, but often when a client asks for a deliverable we are quick to promise unrealistic delivery timelines.
This not only compromises the quality of that deliverable, it also ratchets up an advertiser’s stress level.
Instead, take a moment to consider the needed resources and time to complete that task before blurting out “tomorrow”, or tell the client you will need to confer with your team and provide an expected delivery date to them later.
Clients seldom need things as fast as you imagine, they just need them done well.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Robert Gavrilovic: Rainfactory’s co-founder and CEO, Janielle Denier, was incredibly influential in my success.
She helped build my analytical chops, while teaching me critical leadership and team-building skills.
Most importantly, she forced me to question my assumptions and put my theories to the test.
Her favorite motto, which I have taken to heart, is “decisions are data”.
This means the only proof is data.
A leader needs to identify what really moves the needle in achieving company goals.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Delegating effectively is a challenge for many leaders. Let’s put first things first. Can you help articulate to our readers a few reasons why delegating is such an important skill for a leader or a business owner to develop?
Robert Gavrilovic: A leader needs to identify what really moves the needle in achieving company goals.
Anything that does not make that list needs to be delegated, you can then focus your attention and energy on those high-value areas.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you help articulate a few of the reasons why delegating is such a challenge for so many people?
Robert Gavrilovic: Delegating is a challenge as it forces leaders to contend with the loss of control and self-evaluation.
Both are often anathema to leaders. Releasing control makes leaders feel uncertain about quality control.
Leaders are just human, and humans are not good at everything, and that is a hard pill to swallow. But leaders need to be able to self-evaluate and identify those areas.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your opinion, what pivots need to be made, either in perspective or in work habits, to help alleviate some of the challenges you mentioned?
Robert Gavrilovic: You first need to change your perspective, often leaders tell themselves it will be quicker if they just did it themselves.
That may be true, but it is short-sighted.
I advise initially investing extra time to build a system of effective delegation, this will later pay dividends in time savings that you can then use to focus on key business outcomes.
Leaders are just human, and humans are not good at everything, and that is a hard pill to swallow. Robert Gavrilovic
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Robert Gavrilovic: I think the best way to affect change is to encourage, educate, and inspire those around you to affect change.
On a professional level as an example, Rainfactory has done pro-bono work for the incredible non-profit organization, Save the Children.
During the COVID-19 crisis, many children were at even greater risk of food and education insecurity.
We helped Save the Children develop and launch a successful crowdfunding campaign to assist with this critically needed effort.
Rainfactory also launched a donation matching program to employees’ cause-based organizations of choice.
I donated to the Equal Justice Initiative, which is an incredible organization led by Bryan Stevenson that works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Robert Gavrilovic: You can follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
