Izzet Pinto, CEO of Global Agency, is the face of the new Reed MIDEM campaign which promotes MIPCOM’s biggest success stories, and rightly so since in less than nine years Pinto’s company has become one of the biggest international distributors. CEETV’s Georgi R. Chakarov met with Mr. Pinto in Cannes to talk about this new milestone in his career and his future plans with Global Agency.

CEETV: Izzet, you have become the face of a new campaign promoting MIPCOM, the biggest international TV event and market. Please, tell us more about that.

IP: Three months ago, I received a call from Reed MIDEM who informed me that they have created a new campaign called “Success Stories Start at MIP” and they wanted me to become the face of this campaign. I was really thrilled and honored; because, as you know, we started from nothing and we turned into this big company and it’s great that they see us as a good role model. Now, you can see the campaign at MIPCOM 2015: the videos on mipcom.com, the emails to market participants and the billboards in the Grand Hotel area and articles in MIPCOM Daily News.

This is a great honor for me. And also my focus has always been creating a big brand name. Instead of having more money in our bank account, I prefer to invest more in marketing and promotions. I have always wanted to create a brand and when I started Turkey was not on the map in this business and then we put Turkey in the spotlight. We were the first company to sell Turkish formats, and even though we were not the first company to sell Turkish drama, 1001 Nights was the market opener for everyone. After we sold it to Bulgaria and Serbia, it then sold to over 60 countries and later with Magnificent Century our business tripled every year leading to this major highlight here. It is amazing as we started with one project and two people nine years ago and right now we are attending the market with 25 people and 130 selected projects. We are selling thousands of hours in primetime to over a hundred countries and I really hope that we can grow even bigger.

CEETV: You have also dedicated this campaign at MIPCOM to your father. Tell us more about that.

Unfortunately, he passed away seven years ago and his biggest dream was always seeing me successful and I am happy that one month before he passed away I won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Turkey and I gave that award to him. And I think this campaign now tells the story of my success. Before he passed away, I had almost achieved that dream but I think the real success story is competed now, here at MIPCOM 2015. So I wanted to dedicate this to him and I’m really happy about it.

CEETV: Now, when you have reached that peak what would be your next step?

I will continue to do the same. For example, I will invest more in my presence here, more marketing and more formats which will bring us more attention and visibility. On the other hand, in the past two years my biggest passion has been creating formats and we have been pretty successful with that. The six formats I created have all sold to numerous countries. Keep Your Light Shining counts 20-30 deals, including the options and It’s Showtime and our new format Is That Really Your Voice are also attracting attention, and it is so exciting to see them on air. You can’t compare this feeling to anything else. And I want to continue creating shows because it gives me this great satisfaction.

CEETV: How do you see the relationship with your clients developing from now on? We have heard you are planning a special event for next year.

IP: I love networking, as a person and as part of my company, and I call my clients friends. We have been so supportive to them and they have been so supportive to us and we have a great relationship. That’s why our parties are so popular because we have so much fun together. And to take this one step further we have just created this great event called “Global Agency – Screenings and Hangover”, which will be held in June next year, either in Antalya or Bodrum. It will last three days. In the daytime we will be working: screening and pitching new projects, and at night we will have fun parties, starting from soft parties, warm-up parties to middle and then a huge, hangover party. We are very much looking forward to it. We are not doing this to sell more but we are doing it to become an even bigger family.

CEETV: Is this why you have been so successful?

IP: I think it is due to luck, vision and great passion. When we combine these three elements, I think this is what brought us here.

So, what does your inner feeling for hits say? Which will be your next big hit?

Is That Really Your Voice? has as big potential but I really want to be careful with my formats because often producers twist the shows as they think that would help them but actually they change the format, so I’m going to keep a closer look on adaptations in the future. It’s Showtime is another idea of mine which was picked up by FremantleMedia with options for 20 countries and next week Keep Your Light Shining starts airing in Georgia, then Cambodia, then Angola, Mozambique, second season in Brazil… it's all very different places and when you have all this together it's really pleasant.

CEETV: How about your new series Kösem? Everyone says it’s the new Maginificent Century. Can you tell us what will be the similarities and differences between these two titles?

Script-wise, the new series is amazing. The quality is at least two times higher than Magnificent Century but now we have to see what people will think about it. I try to be objective and I like it a lot. I think it’s going to be a very big hit but we should first see the reactions this week. We will have private screenings for two days and we are really heavily promoting the show in and around the festival in Cannes, including a huge party where we have invited over 600 clients; actually, more than a thousand want to come but we don’t have enough space. We have also brought the stars here, so we are doing everything to promote the show and the producers are very happy with this. We do more than any other major company would do to promote a new show. I am very thankful to Timur Savci for trusting us and giving his new project to us. He has been very supportive for many years.

CEETV: You seem a like person who is 24/7 in the TV business. How do you find the time to do all of this?

IP: I think that’s also the advantage I have because I love this business so much and I’m so dedicated. In some way, it’s difficult because I wake up four times a night and I keep checking my emails and maybe it’s not that healthy but because I love it so much I just don’t want to wait for the following day. I also love creating new ideas, working with big advertising agencies to find new ideas and integrate them into our projects. I am always dedicated to big promotions and creating buzz following our motto “We create buzz” and that will continue because we like this style of work.