The largest regional communication industry meeting Weekend Media Festival was held this weekend in Rovinj for the seventh time and has included the regional advertising agencies showcase BalCannes again, with the record number of 148 entries.
As in the previous years, a panel made of journalists from the region made a selection of 25 projects that have been presented in front of the festival audience. Among them were three projects by Bruketa&Žinić OM group of agencies, campaigns Zagrebačka banka – The First 100 years / Time Vault as well as Life is Not a Game of Chance and The Lost Page Campaign by Brlog.
Srđan Laterza, Brlog’s Copywriter and Content Manager presenting The Lost Page Campaign
Nikola Žinić presenting Life is Not a Game of Chance campaign
Mad Men vs. Math Men panel was held on the first day of the festival with Davor Bruketa as one of the speakers, together with Saša Dimitrievski from Slovenian Pristop, Ivan Kovačević from Agrokor, Larisa Zdravković from Serbian ZenithOptimedia Adriatic and with Daniel Ackerman from Degordian as the moderator.
More then ever before we are able to perceive campaign results in real time and adjust our tactics according to conclusions made out of that, which requires changes in structure and organization of the marketing team and remuneration, said Bruketa and pointed out: “The future lies in agencies which will give an integrated service by merging different specializations so our key challenges are process management and the lack of expert staff”.
On the second day the SoMo borac awards were pronounced for the best social and mobile projects in the region. Zagreb Be There app created by Bruketa&Žinić OM and Brlog for the Zagreb Tourist Board was shortlisted in two categories.
On the same day and also part of BalCannes the panel Pitchomania was held, with Nikola Žinić as one of the speakers. Joining him were Aljoša Bagola from Pristop group, Vladimir Ćosić from McCann Belgrade, Dušan Drakalski from New Moment New Ideas Skopje, Bojan Hadžihalilović from Fabrika Sarajevo and Ekrem Dupanović, Media Marketing’s editor-in-chief as the panel moderator.
While the Pitchvajz panel held the day before focused on the business aspect of the pitch, here they talked about the creative aspect. “The overall conclusion is that creative teams like to be part of a pitch because they motivate them and set new challenges.”, said Žinić and added how the negative side of pitching, as a usual method of obtaining new accounts, is a low-level of its organization when compared to more developed countries.
While the situation in Slovenia and Croatia is relatively sorted out, and Serbia is noticing shifts in quality, Bosnia has it the worst. Lack of transparency is a huge problem, the competitors are unknown, briefs are written inadequately, a pitch is organized even for the smallest materials instead of long-term collaborations, which would serve as a better motivation. “I dream of the day when a professional publication such as Media Marketing for example could publish all the ongoing pitch information with all the contestants and budgets, like Contagious does for example.”, said Žinić.
Foto: PIXSELL / Danijel Berković, Petar Glebov
