#onecupofcoffee Ahmet AKIN

When you work with Ahmet Akın , the three values you will notice are sensitivity, constructive approach and self-confident stance. He is open to what will happen in his life and knows how to feed off what comes his way. According to him, the indispensable part of a communicator is the ability to observe. Life changes every day, people change. He emphasizes that you should constantly re-observe and take a photo of each day, re-interpret and re-perceive what you see. He suggests asking the questions of what has changed, what is new.

The last sentence of the #onecupofcoffee conversation is "Being aware of what comes from the past and being open to perceiving the new" and the taste of the interview lingers on our palate.

How is your relationship with coffee?

I drink coffee a lot. I drink it every hour of the day. I can't imagine a life without coffee. Sometimes I drink tea, and after drinking it I want coffee. I even think about it; I drink tea so that I can want coffee again...

I think there is a difference between tea and coffee. Coffee has its own weight and depth. Tea seems to me to be a faster and more superficial drink. Coffee has its own meaning, tea doesn't... The coffee dialogue is deeper than tea. Even the fact that coffee has been drunk in these lands for a much longer time than tea could be a reason. Tea entered our country as a state policy, while coffee passed from these lands to Europe. Therefore, coffee has been sipped in these lands for hundreds of years. I hadn't thought about it this long; in short, coffee connects us to our roots. It reminds us of who we are.

Do you have a preference regarding coffee beans?

I don’t like just one type of coffee. Sometimes Turkish coffee, sometimes Latte, sometimes Americano, sometimes Cortado… It’s not available everywhere, but I like it. I also like how diverse coffee is. That’s the difference from tea. If we leave herbal teas aside, black tea is a bit more limited. With coffee, you have the opportunity to taste more aromas; it’s a richer experience.

How is your current business going?

This week, the 16th Brand Conference took place. I gave a speech called Communication Trends and Brands from an Advertiser's Perspective. What's happening in the world, where the world is heading, etc. I talked about both how technology is transforming communication and societies' relationship with advertising or their moving away from advertising. I gave examples on how it is possible for societies and brands to communicate better with each other. Preparing for this presentation was also nourishing for me. The feedback I received from the audience was in this direction. I am enjoying completing this presentation.

You are the manager of an advertising agency...

I see the added value of this in finding answers to questions like where the economy is evolving and where trends are heading . E-commerce brands are rapidly increasing recently. We have also started working with them. We are working with Tazedirekt.com, we worked with Ciceksepeti.com. Although an advertising agency's own vision, stance and culture are very important, it is their customers who shape them. The sector they are from, their closeness to communication, their openness, and how they look at new projects are very important. In fact, the choices determine the agency's position. We especially like working with new-age brands. Internet brands are mostly young and fresh brands. It is a good exercise to muscle them up.

Do you have a side path that feeds into your work in communications? One of the creative industries, for example…

We are moving towards an interdisciplinary world in general. No discipline can exist in isolation from other disciplines. There is a subject that Americans call T-shaped focus. It says that deep knowledge in just one field is not enough. You also need to touch the horizontal line above the T, be interested in many fields and be able to connect them with each other. Therefore, there is no such thing as just being an advertiser. There is also knowing music. There is always following art. In fact, there is also being increasingly related to technology and understanding it.

One of the latest trends is the "big data" that has risen with technology. It is a bit more technical. It is slowly coming to the advertising sector. The visualization of big data has started to be done in an artistic way as well as using it. The sector is looking for an answer to the question of how we can use this information instead of just raw information. Technology, advertising and art are starting to intertwine.

Every day new content; visual, written and audio is increasing. There is not enough time to read.. .

The time we spend on the internet is increasing. The time we spend with each login is decreasing. We enter and exit, enter and exit. These are called micro moments. How will we consume so much content in those micro moments? Another trend is that the content is 'Snackable'... With the agility of English, it is like a snack, shorter... Maybe we will see an increase in content that can be consumed in short bursts, even if it is not a summary, so that we can look, watch and return to our lives in that micro moment when we pick up our mobile device. This is actually the reason for the time limits of social media applications. 15 seconds on Instagram, 6 seconds on Vine or 1 second on Instagram's new app Boomerang. It is so short that it starts and ends in one go, so it repeats 5 times for you to watch it. We are entering an era of short, pill-like content. Otherwise, we cannot catch this wave of content that is renewed so rapidly.

And the options we can choose from are increasing and we are increasingly unable to keep up. This is called the “paradox of choice”. A productivity that seems to be going well starts to make our lives harder. It always drags us into a feeling of being left behind and not being able to keep up. This is called FOMO (Fear of missing out). Am I missing something right now; what am I missing during this interview? These are the discomforts of the new era. The balance of speed, intensity, and the fear of being left behind is also possible by listening to ourselves personally. Like yoga, meditation… Being alone, going out into nature again.

Three values that I can summarize you with are sensitivity, constructive approach and confident stance. What can we add?

I have been interested in the subject of potential lately. I see that many people are left unfinished in the works they do not reveal their potential. I work and read on that subject. This is actually the subject that concerns me the most. A person finding their purpose in life and pursuing it. If I observe something about this subject in those people around me, I want to chat with them. I do this more and more. Yes, we should be patient. There are difficulties in life and we should not give up. However, there are questions such as where we are, in which lane we are experiencing difficulties. If we have entered a lane that does not help us to discover ourselves, life can be even harder for us. Even a burden or an obstacle is relative. There is also a tendency for some people to think that they are late in the matters they want to change in their lives. I work to help them change this approach. It is never too late for anything.

Can we say that putting an end to working professionally and starting your own business is related to this?

I never thought about starting my own business when I was working professionally. I wonder why I didn’t think about it at the time. Now I find being a business owner valuable. In some ways, it’s even better. After starting my own business, I have more respect for grocers, shopkeepers, and all of them. Each of them are creative people; they bring a being into the world, give it a name, and make it live in a physical space. This is creativity in itself. When you have your own business, everything is in your hands. You are actually by yourself. You start listening to your inner voice more.

What other areas or topics provide your intrinsic motivation?

Everything I've experienced. Everything I've read, everything I've done, everything I've decided. Every day, I ask myself, "What's next?"