Petra Fonda: "My best mistake"

I glanced at the numbers, a cold shiver running down my spine. How could this have happened? The campaign had worked brilliantly with another brand. So why did it fall flat this time? My mind raced, trying to figure out where we had gone wrong. What did I miss? But the truth was, it didn’t matter anymore. Even if I could pinpoint the exact moment, we veered off course, it would be too late. Despite the inner turmoil, after two years of hard work and countless hours poured into this project by my team, I had to face the truth: I made a mistake. 

Petra Fonda talks about one of her biggest mistakes

Hi, my name is Petra, I am the CEO of BurdaMedia Extra and this is a story about a time I messed up. Let me give you a quick rundown of what happened. As the head of the company, I am always on the lookout for new ways to grow and take our business to the next level. We thought we had found a shortcut to success by copying a formula that had already worked well for us – our 'Marianne Days'.  

So, let me explain. This is a huge four-day shopping event that we run every September in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – almost comparable to Black Friday in other countries. We work with 450 beauty, fashion and electronics partners who offer over 600 discounts. These special deals can then be found in our Marianne magazines and Marianne Days app. Every year, the event attracts more than 500,000 shoppers. Organising this event brings us a margin of around 50%. 

If it had worked so well for Marianne, surely it could work for our other brands with just a few tweaks, right? We thought it was a foolproof plan. So, we introduced a spring version and called it "Shopping Fever". The concept was the same: we teamed up with retailers, distributed discount coupons in our magazines and online, and hoped that people would rush out to buy their favourite brands at a discount. 

Both attempts were a failure

So how did it turn out? To put it bluntly, it was a bust in the first year. When the numbers came in, it was clear that we had spent more than we had made.  But I was still optimistic. Sometimes it just takes time for an idea to establish itself in the market. I was confident that the second time would prove to be the charm. Sadly, I was wrong. 

I remember coming home to my husband, feeling frustrated and defeated. I plopped down at the kitchen table and vented about everything that had gone wrong. Sure, the Covid pandemic wasn't exactly helping, but even without it we probably wouldn't have done much better. I was so upset with myself, trying to figure out why I hadn't seen this sooner. Of course this could have never worked. We were targeting a completely different audience with different expectations, and we had tried to mix three brands into one event, which just confused people even more.  

And let me tell you, it's been a rollercoaster of emotions. Some people might prefer to deal with things like this on their own, withdrawing into themselves, but for me, speaking about it is my lifeline. In this case, it was with my fellow department heads – those who were right there with me, sharing the same sting, confusion, and overwhelming frustration. Without them, I would have been left alone with my swirling thoughts, trapped in a relentless loop of ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys.’ 

Together, we managed to break through the mental chaos and cut through the noise – letting our thoughts out unfiltered and without second-guessing. We had been through the same sleepless nights, the same anxious mornings, the same sinking feeling in our guts, which was incredibly comforting. Knowing that we weren’t alone in this struggle even gave us a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, we could turn things around. 

So that's what we set out to do. Meeting after meeting, poring over every detail, desperately trying to find a solution to this mess we had created. We were relentless because we knew one thing for sure: there was no easy way out. And finally, after exhausting every option, we came to the painful conclusion that “Shopping Fever” had to go. 

What made this decision particularly painful wasn't just the financial loss, although that was certainly hard to swallow. It was seeing the immense effort my team had put into this project over the past two years. They had given it their all and now I had to be the one to pull the plug. It was gut-wrenching to accept that I could have prevented this if I had recognised the missteps sooner. 

"You can't copy and paste success"

But that’s the reality we face – mistakes are part of life. We experiment with new ideas, and while most of the time they work out, sometimes they don’t. And that’s okay. We didn’t succeed with "Shopping Fever", but we gained some invaluable insights. The biggest takeaway? You can’t just copy and paste success. What works for one brand won’t necessarily work for another. There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to brand concepts. 

The hardest lesson, however, was learning when to let go. Even if you've put your heart and soul into something, there comes a point when you have to make the tough call to cut your losses. My team and I had to learn this the hard way. But having a team that understood and stood behind me made it easier to focus on what we could do next, rather than dwelling on what hadn't worked. There were no hard feelings – we all knew that pushing on wouldn't bring us the success we were hoping for. In fact, it would have made things worse, only making the decision to pull the plug even harder. 

So, if you ask me if I’d do things differently next time, the answer is definitely yes. But would I erase this mistake if I could? Absolutely not. Because it’s through these missteps that we learn and grow. Making mistakes is not only inevitable –it’s essential to move forward. And honestly, mistakes make it easier to handle the next time you stumble. 

P.S. For those of you waiting for a happy ending: We eventually managed to turn things around with "Marianne Days 2.0: Spring Edition." Same brand, same audience – just a different time of year. And guess what? Our shoppers love it just as much as we do. 

Petra Fonda

We all make mistakes—and that’s exactly what our content series, ‘My Best Mistake,’ is all about: the mistakes made at Burda and, more importantly, what we’ve learned from them. Because mistakes aren’t a bad thing; they’re a part of life. And often, it’s from our mistakes that we learn the most.