Martin Orange

Digital marketing expert, author, entrepreneur, lecturer.

Martin Orange - Early years

Kindest welcome to my portal. I am Martin Korošec and on this subpage you will learn about some highlights from my career. Digital marketing has been my field since 2008. It’s true, I remember the beginnings of search engines, the first email services, the beginnings of Google, the first Google AdWords, the arrival of Facebook, Google SEO optimization and its changes, web banners in flash, php websites and the days when website design started to mean customization for mobile devices as well. Or how I was horrified by the clumsy beginnings of WordPress and we preferred to make our own CMS web editor. But, let’s start at the beginning.

In high school I edited the school newspaper and was elected president of the entire high school center. As a result, I became a member of the student parliament. That’s when I realized that politics as electricity is already for younger people. Unfortunately, I forgot this realization over the years so I would remember it again. I somehow logically chose the Faculty of Economics for my studies and quickly realized that accounting, finance, statistics are not for me. For marketing, I felt that the area where my creativity would come to the fore was a sense of organization and the love for writing. I have loved writing and reading since I was a child. I remember the young, energetic and enthusiastic mother toungue teacher in high school. She had a rule that whoever misplaced or omitted more than 4 commas in an essay gets an F. Of course I managed to misplace 19 commas, but she still gave me an A (I’m not sure if the comma before the word butis in the right place). Thus, in my eyes, she became one of the greatest teachers in my life. She showed that she understood the essence. The point was that we know how to think. Commas can be placed by a proofreader.

I do not proofread my texts, probably because of some resistance. Just like I don’t use make up and pretend that it is not seen that I don’t know something. But no one has judged good writers by their ability to write commas.

In 3rd grade of elementary school, I read more books than all 25 5th graders combined. And they were a great team that I got to know well during the fights before, during and after school. The schools in villages were sometimes more adrenaline-fueled, and coming home with a bloody head was common, and no one was particularly worried about it.

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I was particularly reminded of Karl May's thick Indian adventures, which are on an even thinner paper than the Bible, described the adventures of the famous Indian Winnetou and his friend Old Shatterhand. How amazed I was over the years when I found out online that the writer of these adventures was a German, Karl May, who had never seen North America. However, he saw everything in his imagination with which he fruitfully shortened the time of various forced vacations, usually due to a longer unannounced bicycle rentals.

During my studies, I mostly only attended exam dates, which I also moved to a more convenient time several times. I somehow did my studies by taking exams in June and August and attending student get-togethers. Throughout my studies, I did various jobs, mostly two, sometimes three, so that I could pay for all the expenses myself. From what I can remember, I did about 30 different jobs.

I first got to know marketing in the first and second year of high school, when I was doing a holiday internship in the marketing department of the largest producer of sausages and nuggets in the country (at that time I still ate meat, maybe its because of that experience that I don't anymore). Of course, these were just ancillary jobs, although I felt capable of much more. During my studies, I did not acquire particularly practical knowledge, as the content was set very theoretically and also outdated. That is why I have repeatedly applied for the position of project assistant in a very successful marketing agency, which is still in the lead in the number of Cannes lions. Unfortunately, it no longer exists today. I was hard-working and soon took over on independent project management. Digital marketing did not yet exist at the time. However, I worked a lot in the field of organizing business events. Among the customers I worked for was also the largest manufacturer of small home appliances. For him, for several years in a row, I practically organized a house fair with 400 invited guests (management and sellers of leading retail chains). It was huge success and was continued even after I left.

From the beginning, I remember working too long, usually on weekends and having oppositions in the team. It soon became common place for me to work 250 hours a month or more. The salary was low but I also learned a lot. Due to the tensions in the team, I did not see a long-term future, but to stay quiet somewhere and subordinate to someone is also never my preference. So after a few years, I continued my journey in a completely different industry.

Marketing management in a hotel and gaming salon

I know that then I have not yet completed the formalities of the diploma, but I had enough experience that I was chosen as the head of marketing and sales department at the other end of the country. The tourist complex contained a hotel or motel (especially for transit guests and daily tired couples from the surrounding area), a large restaurant with 250 seats and a small restaurant with an exotic offer, limousine rental, a games room and an event space. The composition of the guests changed throughout the day. In the morning, working lunches, in the afternoon drinks for mothers from the area, business lunches in the evening. In between, tourist bus stops for the obligatory coffee and a visit to the toilet. This basically brought in the most profit (coffee, not toilets). The gaming salon was regularly visited by (addicted) players and players brought here by the highway. People who played by pawning their home and workers from the south who spent their annual salaries on the way home. I never liked this part of the offer too much. On top of all that, incompetent people were leaning in the wrong positions and it was all pointing in the wrong direction. But I liked concerts, fortune-telling, bingo and other fun events all the more. There was an indescribable amount of work, the schedule lasted from eight in the morning until one in the morning or even the next morning. But for a young man with a lot of energy and creativity, all of this was still a fun challenge. Meeting famous singers, working with radio stations, introducing direct marketing, advertising on different types of media, organizing Miss pageants. Yeah, all of that would was great. But I also realized the corruption of people who earned a little more and showed their bad sides on employees. So I quit, which they also tried to embitter, and then looked for a job in a new industry.

However, during this period I developed an innovative marketing approach, which in a couple of years enabled me to successfully start my own marketing agency and became the inspiration for my first book.

The audio jingle of the gaming salon where I worked was identical to the competitions. With the fact that “our” audio jingle did not belong to the name at all. But it went well with competition. And that’s why every time we advertised “our” gaming salon, we advertised the competitor. I tried to explain this to the management, but for people who attack employees during the day, if they break a glass that they should watch the expenses, and then drive to the casinos in Monaco for the weekend in limousines, it is mostly difficult to explain.

But I understood and refined the concept further.

Project director at the media space and time leasing agency

The Internet fell into the below-the-line category. Hundreds of thousands of euros had to be properly distributed among various media in order to reach the target group of the client or advertiser.

I managed relations with a leading web media company, national bank, national agency for the promotion of tourism, national insurance company, mobile service provider. The team of media planners, in accordance with their knowledge, prepared the, so called, media plans. I myself have added value with my experience with innovative solutions for reaching target groups. The work was very interesting as we represented a crossroads between large advertisers, creative agencies whose work had to be distributed among the media and the media themselves. In this way, he got to know the media landscape, newspapers, magazines, radios, poster providers and various creative ways of advertising. There were also many events. It was a time of growth, optimism without a basis, when every mistress in the capital city drove a Porsche Cayenne.

Never before, never after, wasn’t I invited to so many social events (half the people were always the same) and got so many small gifts from business partners. It really was a different time, full of visits, coffee meetings and thinking about visions. Today, everyone is in a hurry, and the meeting usually doesn’t even happen.

Project director in a PR agency

Media plans are, of course, just endless numbers and I’ve never been in love with this part of the business. Clients otherwise loved my creative presentation and usually just confirmed those tables as they were aware that they didn’t have the tools to check if the right banners and magazine ads were really selected. This also bothered me greatly and so I developed concepts to directly check the effectiveness. But this one was more of an interest to smaller clients, which I used as soon as I set up my marketing agency. Therefore, I accepted the offer and take over the position of project director in one of the oldest and largest PR agencies in the country.

PR people usually deal with quite a few political stories that luckily I haven’t had to deal with. I had a lot of experience with organizing events, designing creative campaigns and so I contributed my part here. Again, it was about work, caring for relationships with large clients, advising on building personal and corporate brands. Meetings have become more formal, in a business suit and a tie, and I’ve learned that being charming with secretaries is a key part of a successful relationship with big businesses. Secretaries, at least those, older, experienced ones, decide what is important and what is not, what information will reach the directors or administration and even which email will be printed out. Because many directors didn’t read emails in those days, the secretary printed it out and handed it over to the director. Of course, everything she didn’t like landed directly in the trash. Hence the habit of always having something sweet in my pocket when I go on visits. Every lady secretary is happy when she gets something for her as well, to manage stress more easily, because most of them organize all the work in large companies.

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Head of the marketing department at a bank

Somehow it happened that the previous head of marketing retired, the person that was supposed to take over was redeployed, and there were no other suitable ones at the time. Thus, as a contract employee, I took over the management of the department in the bank. One was weekly meetings with the CEO and the other was reality. Very few collegues, who were employed with existing work assignments. Everyone locked up in their office. For at least one, I suspected he was never in the office, but he had a long list of original excuses. Okay, let’s forget this is a bank. Let’s make the style and pace of work like in an the agency.

Over thirty projects were designed and implemented that year. Somewhat enough for the normal course of work. But most of us cooperated and somehow we were able to do it. At 26, I had my own secretary who scolded me because I took the newspaper and coffee myself. Because this is her job. When I asked her to call a prepared list of media and companies, however, she protested that this was not her job. I was amused by a pillar in the middle of the office and decided not to trust any authority at all if the architects still don’t understand what the offices are for. Of course, over the years, I’ve rented a good two hundred square feet of offices for my agency in a gleaming office building, all in glass, like in Manhattan. Each office had a pillar in the middle of the office. More and more, I discovered that the corporate environment didn’t suit me. Work was replaced by meetings. The implementation was replaced by interdepartmental coordination. Energy was replaced by coffee.

Marketing agency Orange

The corporate environment was too tight for the young creative, salesman, event organizer. Literally. In 2007, at the age of 28, it was time to set up my own agency, which happened after a series of events. The purpose of establishing the agency was to offer customers creativity combined with direct marketing. The goal was therefore to determine the effectiveness of creative solutions and increase sales. Marketing agencies avoided this like the devil avoids the cross, because they preferred to share recognition for creative ideas, and for the most part they had no idea about the sales or they even considered it as something unworthy of such an art that is advertising creativity. Well, I knew companies were missing that part and I bit into that orange. However, I have never submitted any work to any advertising festivals. Because I outgrew this part of “creativity”. I was aware that clients need creativity that works. This, however, can only be achieved by solving a problem that a potential buyer has. So I preferred to focus on the compliments of satisfied customers. We have been working with some of them for 12 years.

First, the name had to be determined. Something juicy, positive, something that can be materialized.

From the different versions, I chose Orange. Delicious, full of vitamins, popular. I gave each customer oranges in a paper bag. If they weren’t available, there was orange-flavored chocolate. With starting a business, of course, I found myself faced with the fact that I would only get paid if I convinced and satisfied enough customers. So I immediately realized a marketing concept I had been developing for years: cobranding with movies.

Abroad, I’ve noticed that movies are a remarkable magnet. And that the world’s largest companies are advertising with movie materials. In my country, however, it was customary to write at the end of the movie: the sponsor of the movie is xy.

With that idea in mind, I went to the largest film producer in the country and came across the right man, with whom we are similar in many ways. Full of ideas, enthusiasm, energy and in love with his business.

At the same time, I visited the biggest national bank and they invited me (I was working alone at the Orange agency at the time) to do a pitch. Product: housing loan.

I quickly found a suitable movie and agreed to change the name of the movie or not translate it exatcly as is from English but change it up a bit. Instead of Failure to launch the name of the movie was something like: Over 30 and still living with his parents.

Additionally: Bank’s mortgage loans were natural and related to the actual situation or youth problem. TV commercials with world stars Sarah jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey were mega well received. I remember very well that a very brave and visionary marketing manager at the bank told me at the time that the bank had never had that good ads with such an effect. Such a project is strictly defined and specifies what can be done and from when to when it is advertised.

The effect of this new marketing concept was so good that after the expiration of the rights period, the bank re-leased and repeated the campaign. Since then, they called me for many years after to prepare extraordinary campaigns for them.

The local newspaper was also one of the first clients for whom I prepared a campaign to gain subscribers to newspapers. Of course in a fun and adrenaline-fueled way, which ended with the mass participation of interested parties. In the first months, an insurance company Grawe also decided to cooperate for a long period of time.

Martin Orange, first book: The Power of the Star in Marketing

Also on the basis of experience with cobrand projects, which we also carried out for top companies, I completed my first book:

The power of the star in marketing. I wrote it for 7 years and it came out in 2011. I’ve basically written it several times from the beginning.

In the form of short stories, it talks about the fact that the most important thing in business is to build your (personal) brand. And to make your brand a star for your target audience. In a way, I wrote about a phenomenon we call influencers today, even though that notion didn’t exist at the time the book was published. However, the content is written to give useful marketing tips whether you are reading it today or in 2050.

Despite the fact that I only had the company for a couple of months and that I worked alone in the company – I rented half a desk in an office, I managed to convince companies with creative concepts that they entrusted me with very large projects. I was still hiring designers at the time. For campaign collaboration, this was another solution. However, I soon found out that they can only get constant customer quality with a permanent team. This was followed by a move to our first own office, lots of small 20 square qubicles shared by 3 co-workers. The following year, we rented three offices in a very nice office building, which had just been renovated. Over time, we rented more offices, a large meeting room, and a call center space. When the number of co-workers exceeded 15, I noticed that I was more concerned with them than with clients or the company. I could no longer listen to what someone said, did, edited, forgot, saw, heard, erased. I decided to organize the company so that five people could arrange everything for the top clients. Because so many people actually did most of the work and they were really experts in their field that I could trust clients with. The other ten, however, viewed this as current monthly income. A few years later, this concept of arrangement managed to be realized.

But let’s go back to the first customers and the insurance agency Grawe, with which we have worked fruitfully and successfully for many years. On my honeymoon, I thought about this campaign and developed a concept that was immediately endorsed. It was a product that meant investment and insurance at the same time. That’s why I named it Gemini. The ads featured well known twins. We carried out the production at a top level. I solved direct marketing and performance checks by introducing different phone numbers and coupons for each medium separately. Now, for every newspaper, every magazine, every TV ad, every network of billboards, we knew how much people it attracted. Sales have increased tremendously and even today, when someone in my country asks me about what we do, I just mention the Grawe Twin campaign and their eyes light up (of course, if they were adults at the time).

Fate often cruelly plays with people like a stormy ocean with a fishing boat. Just a few months after appearing in the insurance company’s campaign, one of the twins died, 36 years young. Let him rest in peace.

As early as 2008, we also made an online game for the insurance company Grawe in which the player drove his car through the streets of the city and protected it from evil bulldozers from which he could hide in safe houses with the Grawe logo. The simple game that everyone knew how to play impressed people all over the country. This was at a time when viral meant that people told each other about the game or sent a link via email (which was also a fairly new thing). The game was played by a total of over 6,000 people, who also signed up for it. Name, mobile phone, e-mail address, post number and the month in which their car registration expires (cadence). And of course agreeing to the general terms and conditions. Insurance agents have not had an easier job in history as they have been given a database sorted by region, contact number and the month when people will actually be interested in the new insurance.

We made a few dozen of such games for different customers.

After only half a year of the agency’s existence, the global economic crisis hit in 2008. The media published predictions that it would last a year, two, three. Well, it lasted for a long seven years as its effects only started to subside in 2015. Personally, I estimate that everything relaxed and turned in a positive direction only in 2017. Since everything is useful for something, even large companies started to be interested in sales effective creative advertising. The list of customers has multiplied, the team has grown and in between it, so below-the-line the internet was shining like a meteor.

Website and online store creation

We have already made websites, but I was aware that a website can only be redeemed with an online store. Since no one on the team knew this, I founded a new brand: Original Gifts. We made a beautiful logo, a wonderful website design and also programmed it. However, products were missing. So I turned the world around and found contacts of sellers in China, obtained samples, organized delivery, arranged customs, warehousing, packing, shipping, receiving returns, resolving complaints. Of course, we also advertised (at that time, online banners and ads in magazines). Despite online sales, most orders still came over the phone. So we learned how to make online stores and sell online.

In those times, I also organized quite a few text message campaigns. I usually got a sponsor to donate a car as a reward. The client advertised a prize game for all those who sent their information via text message. At the end of the game, we gave someone a car through a draw. But because there were tens of thousands of registered text messages, with direct marketing, such a campaign quickly turned into a very high plus for the client. But to get back to the online store.

We have also included Thudguard protective helmets for toddlers who are just learning to walk. The sale went well and who knows what I would be doing today if there were no reports made to the health inspectorate. Without any basis. The lady came every month, demanded samples, withheld sales, and sent various letters. When we received the laboratory tests, they showed that everything was fine with the products, which was to be expected, because the manufacturer is a company from Great Britain. But due to all the problems, the manufacturer no longer wanted to work with us and terminated the contract. It was then that I saw again that a state body that receives a guaranteed salary is completely indifferent to someone who works and works hard. Although it turned out that the inspector was coming in for unfounded reasons, the English simply had enough of us. I later learned that inspectors come if e.g. someone makes a report. What their interest is, I don’t know, but I can imagine.

At that time, my wife and I, a master of marketing, had our first daughter. Therefore, our interest in everything related to children has deepened. So I bought the Mark & Neli brand, expanded the online store and warehouse, and also used Facebook for marketing, which was just beginning to expand at the time. Babysitters, kangaroos, changing bags, etc. they came from China for which I arranged the whole process. At the time, there was no talk of Amazon, Ali Baba, dropshipping, and even contacts were much harder to get.

But you can get everything, just not time. So at some point I had to decide whether to run a marketing agency or an online store. I decided to run a marketing agency with the knowledge to create an online store. That’s why I still tell everyone today that you don’t just need a programmer and a designer for an online store. That you first need someone who knows what online selling actually means. From my own experience.

Managing Facebook pages and Facebook games

I was initially reluctant to hear about Facebook. But one situation that shook the whole country drew me into this discussion for about a year. I wouldn’t go into details about that, but before I did my first commercial project, I managed a site with 90,000 fans for a year.

As the number of Facebook users grew sharply, I started thinking about it in the way I was used to as a direct marketing expert: it is a customer database. They tell what they like (or don’t like) and they share it with their acquaintances. I attended one seminar from a Facebook expert at that time. I waited all day for the sales line to come. Nothing. I realized that Facebook is treated as a kind of platform for relationships with (potential) customers and that more or less PR messages are posted on it. This shocked and delighted me. So my competitors will be working with PR people, and my clients with a direct marketing tool.

I knew I was going to bombard them to the age of social media.

The next day I gathered my team and told them that in half a year we will be the most successful Facebook agency in the country. But first, I had to figure out how to get what’s most valuable on Facebook: potential customer contact information.

Martin Orange, Facebook games and other applications

For this solution, I used the knowledge from previous projects from the Internet: games. People like to play simple games and at the same time give personal information and an answer to what interests them. But how to incorporate this into Facebook? The answer was hidden in the Tabs. They provided a kind of framework, an iFrame for the content you wanted to display there. We soon found a technical solution to put the game in the frame of Facebook. People first had to like the Facebook page and sign in with the data and indicate what they would be interested in about the offer. These were the beginnings of Facebook, people loved to enter data and share fun content with their friends. At that time, there were no smartphones or they were very rare (we were still smuggling iPhones from the USA at the time).

The results of the first Facebook games were phenomenal. 20,000 – 30,000 personal contacts from the Facebook game. With the knowledge of direct marketing, we were able to turn them into customers. Gamechanger. Disruptive. No fancy term was needed at the time, companies understood the meaning and wanted to get it.

Major appliance manufacturer, one of the largest shopping, business and leisure centers in Europe, national postal service, international chips company Chio, biggest national bank, home decor and furniture store, technology company Garmin, no. 1 company in Europe for laser vision correction (Lasik), one of countries biggest food processing companies, beverage manufacturer, leading global insurance group company Generali, country’s favorite baby food manufacturer, international bottled water producer Jana, ecologically friendly food product company, famous vodka company Pushkin, worldwide known brand of mineral water Radenska, famous spa and a number of other top companies and brands successfully used Facebook with our solutions. And not only with applications but also with comprehensive management: creative posts, responses to comments, monitoring of statistical results.

On average, we prepared 3 posts per day for a client. The clients for whom we managed the the Facebook page were approx. 30. This amounts to over 10,000 posts per year. Therefore, we were able to monitor responses and form insights into what types of posts work extremely well. So a couple of years before I wrote it, I was getting material from practice for my book Effective Facebook Posts.

While others fantasized about whether fans should address the clients formally or not, we built the iMadeapp platform with over 30 types of Facebook apps with up to 8 levels of functionality. This platform was aimed at smaller businesses because despite the fact that the team has grown to 20 people, we have not been able to meet all the demand. Over 1,500 Facebook games have been created and published via iMadeapp.

To make it easier to understand Facebook and the iMadeapp app development system, I started organizing the first workshops. It was initially a minor shock when 40 participants signed up. Then 70. Per month. Soon 70 a week. So I started to grow both as a lecturer and as a salesman from the stage. I sold all subscriptions to the iMadepp platform at these workshops, which were otherwise free.

The peculiarity of all our Facebook applications was that they were extremely viral. For 20,000 – 30,000 subscribers to the applications, customers spent 0€ on advertising. I studied the system and the team was so trained that we convinced people to share apps just through content.

One of the interesting stories related to these is the Facebook app for the Curaprox toothbrush brand. At six in the morning, the director called me and demanded that I come to their office immediately. I was with them at seven and the director clicked the F5 button every few seconds to refresh the subscribtion database. What is it? Did you put some virus up on the app ?? The head of marketing, otherwise a mathematician, was annoyed that she had not yet finally confirmed the application because she had seen some commas that needed to be edited.

In short, I designed the Curaprox toothbrush app so that I missed all the competitive advantages and focused on just one thing – the color of the toothbrush holder. The question in the game was – who will like this xy color? So people sent a yellow toothbrush to person X, a green one to person Y, a blue one to person Z, and so on. Of the 10 toothbrushes, they on average sent 6 to friends.

And how did the app start to spread? So the night before, one of our programmers sent another one of our programmers a toothbrush. Thus, the application was visible on the Facebook profile of the other programmer. By six in the morning, when I was awakened by a call from the director, 1,450 people were already subscribed. A couple of dozen new ones every minute.

I reassured the director with a statement that he wanted this: contacts. We transferred the base and he immediately found out that they were real people. He said he couldn’t even imagine something like that. Within a week, 35,000 people signed up for the app.

It is also interesting in this connection that, as an experienced seller, he wanted payment by effect and did not want to order the application at the regular price. Because he did not believe my experience so far, he insisted on paying according to the number of contacts obtained. But here I must say, he paid up every cent, even though the bill was 5x higher than it would have been at the regular price. The director knew something: 30% of people who get their hands on a toothbrush start buying it. With the app, however, it saved months of promotions, payments to hostesses, shops, and pointless contact hunting. Here, however, he filled his capacities with one stroke. The math lady was again not happy because the team had been packing brushes and promotional material for a couple of months but the company’s goal had been met.

We experienced similarly good responses with applications for a home decor and furniture store and a major appliance manufacturer Gorenje. New product lines have been launched regularly through our Facebook campaigns.

Goodyear has given us the opportunity to run Facebook posts and apps for all of Central Europe.

– 100 € discount

–100 € discount on all e-courses

Martin Orange, second book: Facebook. Your customers are already there. Are you?

I wrote my first book for seven years. I wrote another book in seven months. Facebook was such a big unknown, there were so many guesses, lies, deceptions, selling fog circulating that I felt I could explain with a book the key principles on which companies can use Facebook to their advantage for their marketing. Thus, in early 2012, the book “Facebook. Your customers are already there. Are you?” released.

With the title, I wanted to raise the awareness of companies that they need to be where their customers are. And that they are no longer on media websites but on Facebook. And that this will not change anymore. But it was a wonderful time. People really connected with Facebook at the time. Acquaintances, classmates, business partners. I always had only a few friends so I didn’t need Facebook for that. We posted personal photos and were careful what we wrote and the fact that we did not post political topics on Facebook. In short, the complete opposite of today’s Facebook.

In the book, I announced that Facebook will use a drug dealer strategy. It will be free at first, but then it will be expensive. And so it was. Organic reach was inconceivable. At our top posts, companies received 350,000 personal profile impressions each. 10,000 and more likes. A few thousand shares. And with applications, also personal contact information.

But I predicted that this would change when Facebook reached a large enough number of people. At that point, it will deny companies, that have been investing in their Facebook page all this time, access to their own fans and charge them in the form of ads. Therefore, my strategy of using Facebook in marketing was based on getting people on Facebook and then taking them to my website or game or application to obtain personal contact information.

A year after the second book our second daughter was brought to the world, our beautiful lion cub.

In 2011, the value of Bitcoin rose sharply. I noticed that the programmers in Orange were letting the computers work day and night. When I turned on the screen, some weird numbers were flying around on them. At the time, I didn’t even know that they were mining Bitcoin with my computers. When they explained to me what it was about, what interested me was their useful value. Because you simply had nowhere to pay with them. That’s why I developed the idea of Bitmansa during the new year 2011/2012. Mansa was the name of the richest man in the world – of all time. Forget Gates, Bezos. His wealth was comparable to that of the Rothschilds. Bitmansa would be a search engine for (online) stores that allow you to pay with Bitcoins. Everything was ready for the start when a “partner” intervened who was supposed to program the portal and convince me that this idea would not go through.

But the cryptocurrency story didn’t end here. Years later, at a time of remarkable growth in cryptocurrencies 2018, we began to teach people how to technically master the buying, storing and selling of cryptocurrencies themselves. This is how the Coinmans practical workshop was created, which was attended by quite a few people. And this just in time, before the fall in early 2019.

In 2018, I organized the first Blockchain Tourism conference which brought together representatives of successful blockchain projects, ministers, state secretaries and MEPs. Due to the state of the cryptocurrency market, these projects are pending, but as those who ever worked with the crypto community know, the potential of the new blockchain technology is too great to look at the current economic value of cryptocurrencies.

A friend from my student years, has been inviting me for a long time to join him as a partner in the project of presenting all the beaches in one place. He has already visited several countries and acquired an initial base of beaches (mainly from Croatia). Because I love beaches and the project looked promising, we founded the company My Beach in 2015. This is how the BeachRex project was created, which means King of Beaches. From the initial database of 1,000 beaches, an extensive collection of photographs, videos, descriptions and data on the tourist infrastructure on an individual beach was created. Today, at www.beachrex.com, we present almost 4,000 beaches from Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

We recieved great help in the project by the company Adria Mobil, where I (after several weeks of persistent complaints via LinkedIn) managed to establish contact with Mr. Neil Morley, Marketing Director. From here it went fast. I must say that, as a Brit, he fully understood the breadth of the story. We got an RV and quite a bit of money so my friend could continue travelling around photographing beaches. In return, we produced top photo and video materials of Adria Mobil RV’s from the most beautiful beaches, towns and campsites in Europe. With the project, we managed to create the largest beach base gathered in one place in the world. We have also created a mobile application for uploading new beaches – interesting for apartment owners and tourist workers – as the four continent beaches are still waiting for the presentation.

Martin Orange, third book: Effective Facebook posts

The responses to Facebook posts have been phenomenal for years. Sometime in 2017, however, this story ended forever, as Facebook changed the algorithm so that only a percentage of its fans saw the Facebook page’s posts. In practice, this meant that a post on a Facebook page with 5,000 fans was seen only by around 100-150 fans. The shock was huge. An immediate outflow of Facebook users to Instagram began to at least see something interesting there. Businesses followed.

But the effective post concepts, which were able to reach over 300,000 people (with 0 euros invested in advertising) continued to work. So in honor of the days when we made 10,000 posts a year for our clients, I prepared my third book: Effective Facebook Posts.

Since we have lived off Facebook marketing for so many years, I decided to donate the entire proceeds to charity. I don’t know how it turned out that I signed a contract with the IRIS center, which takes care of blind and partially sighted children. When I visited their premises and saw their facade crumbling and blowing through the windows, I knew I was in the right place. Fortunately, several thousand euros of sales were accumulated, all of which reached the IRIS center.

I brought them another client (from Croatia) and they also received a donation from them.

Since the beginning of the Orange marketing agency, we have organized and arranged many donations and events for children. I remember very well the collaboration with Tosama, in which we gifted quite a few kindergartens with toys through campaigns for the To-to brand. Or the multi-year campaigns with the insurance company Grawe and indoor swimming pool complex, to which we took two buses of children from socially endangered families every day for a full day of swimming.

Interestingly, even today, book buyers send me print screens of their posts, as they can’t believe they achieved 3,000 likes for the first time.

With the end of the period of mass posting on Facebook and making dozens of apps came the moment when I was able to reduce the team to a total of five people in line with natural developments.

For the first time, I was able to put my hand in the fire for each person to master their field and to keep customers happy with their work. Of the dozens of co-workers in all these years, however, only one co-worker has always stood by my side. Even in the most difficult moments. And I will charish that forever.

I have always been interested in spiritual topics. Also those presented in religions (I have read the Bible several times and also the Koran). I have read the Bhagavad Gita and many books of spiritual masters.

Like all good things in life, the most beautiful things come only at the end. Since I’m still young I know I haven’t gotten to the right ones yet. But in the darkest moments, the bright side also started to fight for me. And she won.

One by one, wise, experienced and good people entered my life from whom I learned a lot. Many have become role models for me, some mentors. I missed this the whole time I was running the business as I was mostly lonely.

I stopped working with big companies that only knew how to offer a logo. I got tired of the eternal pitch and told them, either you trust us based on our experience or good luck and goodbye.

The decision proved to be the right one. There were more and more successful family entrepreneurs among the clients who knew how to appreciate all the knowledge and experience I contributed with the team. Who like to pay more and appreciate the value of a healthy relationship.

I said goodbye to the business attire and when business style is expected I put on a blazer over a T-shirt. As the legendary director of the technology equipment store Big Bang and an internationally successful businessman, said at a table with a bunch of gentlemen in ties: “Are you fashion critics or would you like to earn millions?”. Bojan was the emperor, let him rest in peace.

I began to wonder what my personal purpose, my mission, was. I’ve visited a few people and I think I at least know which direction to explore. Since then, an increasing number of people have attended my seminars. So far, over 3,000 female and male entrepreneurs have attended. I have also hosted digital marketing experts from the US, UK and Germany.

I am organizing seminars on digital marketing in more and more countries. This year in at least 8 countries (corona, go away). Through seminars, workshops, and personal counseling, I have felt that most people are hampered by fear in their success in digital marketing. Fear of not knowing the key steps and technical use of the platform.

Martin Orange, fourth book: Digital marketing from A to Z.

That is why I decided to help people in Slovenia and all over the world so that they can understand and use digital marketing according to detailed and easy to understand instructions. In 2019, I started writing the book Digital Marketing from A to Z. I first shot commercials for it. Video ads. So I set myself the ultimate goal: the ads are out, pre-orders too, you have to have the book on November 21st, 2020.

I didn’t see a sunny day for those few months. I was stuck to the chair and when I got the sciatica, I painfully moved from side to side. But nothing helped. But on November 21, 2020, in front of 220 attendees of the Digital Marketing A to Z seminar, at the Intercontinental Hotel, I lifted a book high in the air.

It contains all the knowledge and instructions needed by anyone who wants to successfully apply the knowledge of digital marketing in practice. In addition to the printed book, customers also receive a link to digital content with over 200 pages of technical instructions for using the platforms and around 500 print screens of steps for creating advertising campaigns.

The book was read and recommended by successful entrepreneurs, whom I respect very much: Tanja Skaza, Robert Rolih, Silvester Kmetič, dr. Alexander Šinigoj, Boris Vene. I also got great responses from the first 1,000 customers (written in May 2020).

Learn more about the book Digital Marketing from A to Z here.

It is an honor and pleasure to work with such experienced entrepreneurs like Iza Sia and Samo Login from Outfit7 and Login5 Foundation.

I am especially happy to understand them as individuals and we do not have a basic client-contractor relationship.

I am proud of my small team of experienced professionals, each of whom knows their field and also conducts a workshop on several topics.

Now the book Digital Marketing from A to Z has been translated into English and I have a lot of interesting places to visit and a lot of people I can help with in practice by explaining digital marketing.

I look forward to what the future holds, because I know that what we see is just an illusion.

To all of you who have read this post, I wish you a joyful and playful day.