Ljubljana Stock Exchange
30 years of stellar stock exchange stories
A documentary for the 30th anniversary of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, co-produced with RTV Slovenija
- Client
- Ljubljana Stock Exchange
- Year
- 2019–2020
The Ljubljana Stock Exchange is more than a financial institution. Its story is the story of Slovenia's transition: from a closed socialist economy and privatisation to the European Union, the euro, the financial crisis and the global market.
For its 30th anniversary we made a half-hour documentary that tells this journey through the eyes of the people who shaped it. The film was co-produced with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange and RTV Slovenija, the national broadcaster, which enriched the testimonies with priceless footage from its archive.
The film in numbers
- 30
- Minutes of film that condense three decades of the exchange and the Slovenian capital market.
- 30
- Years of history, from the founding of the exchange in December 1989 to the outlook for the future.
- 8
- Months of production, from August 2019 to March 2020.
- 3
- Partners: produced by Dobre zgodbe, co-produced by the Ljubljana Stock Exchange and RTV Slovenija.
The question the film asks
Is there really a chance for us to become capitalists?
01A story that helped shape Slovenia
Events at the exchange were often closely intertwined with politics, so the exchange helped shape not only the financial but also the social life we live today. The film therefore runs on two tracks at once: as a retrospective of the trading floor and as an overview of the key events in Slovenia over those thirty years.
The film's story arc
-
1924–1942
The first Ljubljana exchange
An exchange operates in Ljubljana until the Second World War. Then trading falls silent for almost half a century.
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26 Dec 1989
Founding
The exchange is founded as the Yugoslav Stock Exchange, with banks as its founding members.
-
March 1990
First trading
At the first session, 14 brokers trade 11 securities.
-
1996
Privatisation
Kolinska becomes the first privatised company on the exchange, followed by Slovenia's large companies.
-
2002
The Lek takeover
Novartis buys Lek, marking a record year on the exchange.
-
2004–2007
The EU and the euro
Slovenia joins the European Union and adopts the euro.
-
2008
Financial crisis
The Vienna-based CEESEG group buys a majority stake, then the crisis hits and weighs on trading for years.
-
2015–2016
A new owner and Brexit
The Zagreb Stock Exchange becomes the sole owner, and the Brexit referendum shakes European markets.
-
2019
Looking ahead
The speakers reflect on the future just months before the COVID-19 crisis, which no one could foresee at the time.
The exchange in numbers
- 11
- Securities at the first trading session in March 1990.
- 283
- Listed securities at the exchange's peak.
- 19.7
- Billion euros of peak market capitalisation.
- 1989
- The year today's exchange was founded, after almost half a century without one.
02How the film was made
Four steps
-
01
Research and documentation
We dived into thirty years of intertwined financial and political events and drew the story arc from them.
-
02
Witnesses
We spoke with every former president of the exchange's management board, key investors, finance ministers and prime ministers.
-
03
The RTV Slovenija archive
We brought the national broadcaster on board as co-producer, and its archive added footage of the key moments.
-
04
Editing
We carefully connected the stories of different speakers with the documented historical events.
The film was released in March 2020 on the exchange's channel, just as the COVID-19 crisis began, and was also broadcast on TV Slovenija, the Slovenian national television. That makes it all the more interesting today: it captured a view of the future right before an event that turned the world upside down. RTV Slovenija also reported on the anniversary (in Slovenian).
03Why a documentary approach for a brand
Streaming platforms brought the documentary its audience back.
Only a decade ago, documentaries were seen as a niche genre for specialised channels. Digital distribution showed them in a new light, and hits such as Tiger King and Fyre prove how strong the appetite is for true stories that seem stranger than fiction.
A brand's content can be made up or documented.
The ancient Greeks divided storytelling into poetry and historiography. Most advertising is poetry. The documentary approach is historiography, and it holds a value brands mostly leave untapped.
History is a story no one else has.
Looking back reminds people of a brand's long presence in their lives and highlights continuity, credibility and reliability. A critical look at its own past offers a perspective for the future and unites views of the brand within the company.
Advert or document
- A made-up story and a slogan
- The brand talks about itself
- A campaign's short life
- Persuades
- Real events and witnesses
- The people who shaped the brand speak about it
- A document that lasts and gains value over time
- Commemorates, preserves and explains
04A newsroom for brand content
Careful work with the archive and connecting testimonies with historical fact come from the journalistic tradition. It is the journalistic approach that most distinguishes content made in a brand newsroom from traditional advertising: responsible, truthful and precise.
Every company shapes its environment, the lives of its employees and sometimes, like the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, an entire economic and political sphere. With a documentary, we help a company become aware of that role and present it to its owners, clients and the public.
05Where this project sits in our matrix
We work across all of these layers, and any combination is possible.
- Who we worked for
- Executive leadershipCorporate communicationsHRMarketingPublic sector
- Project scope
- Small brand storyAlways-on communicationBig brand story (a full campaign)
- What we improved
- ProcessesRelationshipsContent
- How we approached it
- StrategicallyDigitally, with AICreativelyIn an advisory role
- How long?
- Short-term (up to 3 months)Mid-term (3–12 months)Long-term (a year or more)
- What we created
- DocumentsPresentationsVisual identitiesDesignWebsitesSocial mediaCopywritingPhotographyVideo storiesAnimationsPodcastsEventsWorkshops