In the spotlight: RVD Turkey’s Süreyya Deniz

I was born and raised in… Istanbul. I will not be modest here; Istanbul is really a beautiful city. If you decide to come and see its beauty one day, please inform me. I will be more than happy to host you here!

I studied to become an… English teacher, then I changed track. After graduating from university, I studied Public Relations and worked as an English lecturer and research assistant at Istanbul University’s School of Communication. I then joined P&G’s External Relations/Corporate Communications department where I worked until August 2016 (20 years!).

When I started in the advertising/marketing industry… we were not this digital… We didn’t have any mobile phones, and still managed to survive.

My proudest personal/career achievements are… raising a very intelligent and beautiful lady (oh my God, she is 18!!!), and seeing my students back from my teaching days in the top levels of the communications industry.

Our priorities are… for the time being, are the Turkish Pledge led by RVD’s member food and beverage companies, the new regulation on explicit comparative advertising, the first meeting of Ad Council Turkey which we proposed to be formed as a common advisory board with all relevant parties and led by the Customs and Trade Ministry, and GÜR (Safe Digital Advertising Platform) recently established by RVD, IAB Turkey and the Advertising Agencies Association to build trust and ensure a safe digital advertising environment in Turkey.

A very specific challenge in the marketing industry in my country is… digital advertising as in other parts of the world. That is the very reason why we formed GÜR, in order to facilitate the adaptation of the advertising sector to the technology-driven world, deliver information on illegal traffic and online practices, and foster transparency and trust in the digital supply chain.

If I could change one thing about the industry today, it would be… making people more aware of the importance of professional/personal development training programmes. I see a lot of professionals regard these programmes as a burden in the course of business as usual.

What most people don’t know about me is… I am a world-champion folk dancer. I’ve recently quit dancing, but our championship was way back in 1986.

Three things about my country…

1. Turkey is a very beautiful country, and Istanbul is the world’s only city spanning two continents. I live on the Asian side and work on the European side of Istanbul.


2. Turkey is the third country in the world with the largest number of Facebook users, after the US and UK, with 14 million users.


3. Turkey is one of the few countries in the world that refers to sports directly in its Constitution.

Want to know more about Süreyya and RVD Turkey? Get in touch with her here.

This is part of a series of monthly interviews with heads of national advertiser associations in WFA membership.