In this series, we’re taking a look at some of the most creative faces in Melbourne with some help from our friend Kathleen Gunther, who partners with independent agencies across Australia and New Zealand to scale their brand presence and drive sustainable growth. This week, we spoke with Ana Asanovic, communications leader and community advocate.
1. How long have you been in Melbourne? If you weren’t born here, did you choose it or did it choose you?
This time next month, it will be exactly ten years since I bought a one-way ticket from Belgrade to Melbourne, booked a random room in a share flat in Docklands, and then gave the taxi driver the wrong address because I didn’t know apartment numbers came before building numbers here. It’s different in Serbia. That sentence was something I used to repeat often, until I realised I simply have to stop comparing and take the best from both cultures – the Southern European and the Australian. Vegemite is still a challenge, I will say.
When you grow up in Europe, you don’t know that much about the lifestyle differences in Australian cities. Yes, everyone knows about Sydney or Melbourne, but for me it was between Brisbane and Melbourne. And then a smart woman told me to choose Melbourne, for its events, multiculturalism, European “look and feel”, food and coffee, and a bigger potential to meet “the man of my future”, as my astrologer predicted before I even had my visa approved.
2. What’s the most Melbourne thing about the way you or your team works?
Maybe wearing too much black, even though it’s not my colour, and of course the morning takeaway coffee. And trying to get to as many comedy shows I can during the festival in March. And combine that with the fantastic Melbourne Food & Wine festival – March is a great month for our city.
3. Who in the local industry has shaped the way you think about leadership or doing business? Tell us about them.
It’s so hard to pick one. People do come to our lives at a time when we are ready to learn and receive. And we are always learning, if we are open to it and I do believe everyone we work with is teaching us something. If I had to choose, I’d say the fantastic communications leaders I worked with in the public health system, during the covid pandemic. It was one of the most challenging times for our communication profession, but a career-changing one. True leaderships shines when times are hard.
4. What’s got you most excited about where the industry is heading locally?
I am seeing more industry events moving towards building genuine connections, over traditional “networking”. I love meeting creatives and exchanging ideas, but didn’t always enjoy the standard “drinks after work” format. And as a migrant woman, who deeply cares about belonging and ensuring people around me are feeling safe and valued, it wasn’t easy to find spaces for those deeper conversations, where everyone agrees job titles don’t actually matter. I am creating spaces I wish existed when I first arrived to Melbourne.
5. If you were a Melbourne landmark, what would you be?
Can I say the Mornington Peninsula? Beach, food, wine, long summer nights, great books, linen dresses, coffee and long brunches.
Kathleen Gunther is the founder of Gunther Consulting, partnering with independent agencies across Australia and New Zealand to scale their brand presence and drive sustainable growth. With expertise spanning digital marketing, brand strategy, PR and communications, she brings the pragmatism, specialist connections and industry know-how to help agencies market their most important client — themselves. Kathleen also serves as a Board Member of AWIA, actively shaping Australia’s digital landscape and championing inclusivity in the industry.
