SERHAT GÜRCÜ

CO-FOUNDER

Serhat is an entrepreneur and agency president currently based in Istanbul, Turkey.
As an economics student, he founded a Business Club that made him realize the distance between brands and young consumers. He won the JCI World Business Plan Competition with his youth marketing agency plan.
His career as an entrepreneur began right after he graduated from university when he founded his advertising agency. “Youth Republic”, an agency focusing on 47 million young people in Turkey, has created a new market.
Having been in charge of the agency for ten years, Serhat has made it to the list of “40 Under 40” of Fortune magazine five years in a row, which is an annual list of the most influential young people in business.
With more than a decade of experience working with local and global brands such as Vodafone, P&G, Unilever, Ulker, Finansbank, Eti, Tchibo, Intel, Under Armour, Red Bull, and Microsoft, Serhat exited his first startup Youth Republic in December 2015 and founded YW in December 2016.
He currently holds the title of Co-Founder and Agency President at YW.
He is interested in Ad-Tech, Blockchain, Metaverse and startup ecosystems.

SEDEN GÜRCÜ

CO-FOUNDER

Completing the "Business Management" program at the University of Worcester and "International Business Strategies" program at the London School of Economics (LSE), Seden started her professional career in the advertising industry at Leo Burnett Istanbul in 2004 and served as the Account Director for global brands such as P&G, McDonald's, Kellogg's, General Motors and Diageo for five years. She paved the way for introducing the US-based company "Monster.com" in Turkey to gain "start-up" experience, where she served as marketing director and executive committee member for three years. Then she started working at the Youth Republic as the Vice President to gain "Integrated Marketing Agency" experience for five years, where she played a leading role in managing teams of 100-150 persons. She has both generated solutions to the business problems of many local and global brands such as P&G, Unilever, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Intel, Tchibo, Ulker, Arcelik, Finansbank, Boyner, Eti, Under Armour, Redbull and Playstation, and positioned all these brands closer to the young up until now. She blazed the train in the foundation of YW in 2016. She currently serves for both local and global brands as the agency's Founding Partner.

YAVUZHAN GEL

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

After completing his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at the Middle East Technical University, he completed his master’s degree in Communication Strategies and Public Relations at Galatasaray University.
Yavuzhan Gel, who previously served as creative director at several local and global agencies, managed the campaigns of big brands. With these creative campaigns, he received more than 100 awards in national and international competitions, such as Cannes Lions, Golden Drum, Eurobest, New York Festivals, Epica, and local rivals such as Kristal Elma, Felis and Effie.
As of December 2019, he has been working as Executive Creative Director at YW Istanbul.

SELİN ERGİN ACAR

HEAD OF DIGITAL MEDIA & DATA

With a dual degree from Yeditepe University Business Management and Hochschule Bremen European Business System and a postgraduate communications degree from Bahçeşehir University Marketing, Selin began her professional career in 2017 as a Digital Media Specialist at Digitouch Digital Media Agency, which was under Publicis Groupe until it was acquired by Performics. She has worked in Performance Marketing, Branding Advertising, and Account Management for four years.
She provided services for THY, Altınbaş, Joker, Hayat Kimya, Flo, Anadolu Bank, 3M, D&R, Idefix, Koton, Kiğılı, Hepsiburada brands in domestic and overseas digital communucations for 4 years. In 2021, she started as a founder of the Media&Data team for the YW, the integrated agency of the new generation economy. Ajinomoto (Bizim Mutfak), MESS, Eureko Insurance (Road assistance mobile app- Doost) and Hopi (Personalised shopping app) were incorporated shortly after its foundation by Selin, who continues as the director of the Media&Data team. Selin is also currently taking her doctorate in Advertising at Bahçeşehir University.
Selin is interested in Holistic Data Automations, Data-Driven Digital Media Strategies, Efficiency of Digital Advertisement and E-Commerce ecosystems.

PINAR CİNGÖZ

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

After graduating from the Department of Economics at METU in 2007, she completed her Master's Degree in the same field at Bilgi University. In her creative career, which started as a copywriter in 2010 and continued, she worked with many brands from different sectors, including Coca-Cola, Turkish Airlines, Volkswagen, Opel, Ford, L'Oréal, Nivea, Oreo, and Nescafé. She has been awarded in several projects, both locally and globally. Apart from advertising, she continues her interest in gaming by developing projects in this field. She started working as Creative Director at YW Istanbul in 2022.

SELMAN VARDAR

HEAD OF ART

After completing his Visual Communication Design education at Beykent University, Selman joined Patavat Multimedia Agency, a subsidiary of Boogy Event Company, in 2014. Afterwards, he worked in a variety of local advertising agencies. In this process, he participated in digital and brand communication activities of brands such as THY, Mey, Deniz Bank, Maximum, Lays and Nike. He joined YW's creative team in 2018 as art director. In the agency, Selman worked on advertising campaigns for Under Armour Emerging Markets, Grunding, Papara (Turkey's largest fintech company) and Kiğılı (Turkey's largest menswear company). His creative campaigns have been recognized in well-known competitions such as Kristal Elma, Felis and Effie. At YW Istanbul, he continues serving as the Art Group's head.

CREATIVITY

Smart creativity is what we believe in! But what does this mean?
In our business, creativity is essential to achieve effective business results.
Effective results are only achieved when you combine creativity and data together.
As of 2016, we provide both ATL and Digital creative services. To improve the advertising effectiveness of clients, we started our digital media & data department 3 years ago.
Bringing media, and therefore data, to creativity, gives us more of what you want, which is smart creativity.
Well, we are not just a creative & media agency but an innovative agency. What’s next?

• Brand Communication Strategy
• ATL&BTL Creative Development
• Digital Communication Services
• Social Media Content Development
• Campaign Idea Development & Execution
• Creative Materials Development

MEDIA

We make advertising more efficient by providing digital media and creative integrated services. We offer web & app media communications for branding and performance purposes. While we offer maximum reach and ad recall by optimizing the costs per new user we reach in branding publications, we increase sales efficiency with ROAS/ROI-based optimizations in performance communications.
We maximize the advertising results of our brands with our experienced team of Google & Facebook, Media Planning, Analysis & Reporting, and Social Media experts. What services do we provide?

• Digital Media Planning & Buying
• Performance Marketing
• Branding Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

DATA

Through our data-driven approach to creative development and digital media services, we are able to forecast advertising communications prior to their launch, provide real-time reporting and optimization during the launch, and provide detailed insights after the campaign is over.
The data department, which was established three years ago with the media, works closely with the creative team in order to create data-oriented creative value and participates actively in every stage of media communication.

• Data Studio Reporting
• Market & Competitor & Trend Analyzes
• Target Audience Analysis
• Social Media Analysis / Online Mentioned
• App & Web UX
• Search Volume & Trend Analyzes
• Our Tools: GWI, RivalIQ, Hotjar, Data Studio, Pivony

WORLD CLASS TEAM

We've assembled a team of leading strategists, visionary creative minds and digitally technical rock stars.
Our founders, Serhat Gurcu and Seden Gurcu , are some of the most respected names in the advertising industry in Turkey with a combined experience of 18+ years.
The first agency created by Serhat pioneered the creation of a new vertical market in Turkey. Through his success, he has been listed in the Fortune 40 under 40 list five times in a row.
During his tenure at Leo Burnett, one of the world's foremost advertising agencies, Seden was responsible for 20+ global clients, including P&G, McDonald's, GM, Coca-Cola, Loreal, Redbull, Intel and Microsoft. She led the entry into the Turkish market of the American technology company monster.com following the departure of Leo Burnett. After founding YWIstanbul, she was named to the Fast Company female founders list in 2021 and 2022.
As one of Turkey's most prominent creatives, Yavuzhan Gel has won more than 100 awards, including Cannes Lions and Golden Drum awards.
Selin Ergin is our director of media and data, as well as holding a PhD in data, media, and creativity. In her previous position at Publicis Worldwide, Selin managed media planning for 20+ brands.
With a team of 60 employees, YW Istanbul provides; Smart Creativity. Simple process.Powerful strategy.
We offer affordable services from Istanbul as a backwater to all parts of the world.

ISTANBUL

The new hub for the advertising industry in Europe and the MENA region, Istanbul has been fast-rising as a global economic and advertising center in recent years. YW is smart creative agency to use the city’s enormous potential to win it a place as a hub of creativity by inspiring those who want to make a difference with brands and ideas.
A growing list of global multinational companies are relocating their Regional Headquarters to Istanbul to manage marketing & advertising operations in the surrounding region. Turkey’s emerging power status combined with Istanbul’s rise as a global city and important air travel hub has now placed Istanbul at the strategic center as a regional business base. Turkey’s geographical and cultural advantage as a natural bridge between East and West, together with its young, well-educated workforce, fast growing digital advertising market and strategic trade links to neighbouring markets are key factors for multinational companies. Together with London, Paris and Berlin Istanbul is one of the four European mega cities that offer truly global scale.
Aside from its rich talent pool, Istanbul also offers a cost advantage that is unmatched.

YW Office

AFFORDABLE PRİCES

Advertise to the world from Istanbul at a lower cost