Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Photo: Sašo Dimitrievski, Pristop
The Play Media Day 03 regional communication event, held on June 08 in Banja Luka, gathered more than 500 media representatives, companies, creative agencies, institutions and many students, who attended lectures, workshops and panels at the Museum of Contemporary Arts of RS, held by more than 30 world, regional and local experts.
The founders of the creative agency SNASK from Sweden, the eccentric duo Fredrik Öst and Erik Kockum, were the stars of the Uranus stage with their original branding philosophy – Make enemies & gain fans. They describe themselves as the heroes no one wants, but everyone needs, and that we are all born creative, and should remain as such, no mater what other people say. “To act your age is the most immature thing you could do,” says the duo who see their work as play and endless fun.
The visitors were also very interested in the panel “The power of like“, which brought together influencers from BiH, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro. The panel was moderated by blogger and journalist from Belgrade Branislava Antović, and included Erna Saljević, in the online world known as “Diva is Back” from Sarajevo, Milan Vučićević, who has been present on social networks for many years under the pseudonym “Nichim Izazvan” from Belgrade , Nataša Gardašević, who in a short time built her brand “Njezvanova” from Podgorica, but also Petra Mamić, the popular “Skitnica” from Bjelovar.
Although many marketing agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina still don’t understand the importance of influencers, whose global market is worth about $1.7 billion, the great interest of the participants has shown that this aspect of branding and advertising is coming to our region through the big door. “The Internet is rock n’ roll, and the influencers are its new stars,” commented Milan Vučićević, better known as “Nichim Izazvan,” who has 160,000 followers on Twitter. Also, within the panel it was stressed that every dollar invested in influencer marketing brings brands a ROI of 6 to 7 dollars.
Panel “Women in leading positions in the creative industry” brought the stories of how challenging it is to reach the top, and which stereotypes and prejudices women face in their day-to-day work. It was also pointed that there are only 30% women in leading positions in this industry. Creative Director of the Play Team Agency, and Play Media Day program director Dijana Tepšić, invited five successful women who had a vision and achieved great success in the regional creative industry: Sara Mekinc – Pristop, Ljubljana, Vesna Vlašić Jusupović – McCann Sarajevo, Sanja Đekić – Mediacom CE, Zagreb, Anita Todorović – Whole In One Communications, Belgrade. Only when a woman becomes aware of her own power and the intuition she possesses, only then she will be able to overcome obstacles on her way to success, while creating a supportive environment for women in leading positions. “Creative business is like a marriage, sometimes you’re in a quarrel, and sometimes it’s perfect,” said one of the panel participants.
Another interesting lecture was that by the French futurist, Jean Christophe Bonis, who talked about the Black Mirror show, the future of tech, and the moral boundaries in the digital evolution we are experiencing. Parisian who leads 17 companies says that people in Banja Luka are extremely hospitable, and that the creativity of people from these areas is on par with that in the Western Europe.
Sašo Dimitrievski from the Slovenian Pristop stressed how important it is to invest in digital media with one key takeaway: “A video spot for social networks costs as much as TV ad” because “Internet is not in ads, but in content”, concluded Borislav Miljanovic from Represent System Belgrade. A very simple answer to the question “What’s new in digital marketing?” was given by Ivan Živković from Pioniri agency, Belgrade: “Everything!” “Digital gives us the opportunity to see consumers and respond better to their needs”, concluded Živković.
Iva Obrovac from the Zagreb-based agency 404 taught us how to successfully combine digital channels for marketing campaigns. “When you launch a campaign, you should have a hypochondrial approach. Do a good research, because internal data is gold,” Iva said. However, if during the digital campaign we meet with crisis communication, Ljubica Soldo from the Degordian agency offers a solution – Good research, communication plan, tracking system, and an educated responsible person are the basic elements you need to avoid PR crises on social networks.
Stress blocks creativity and productivity, and Play Media Day gave us the opportunity to learn how to deal with stressful situations from Una Kasagić, Jana Tanasić and Nela Marinković, Masters of Psychology from StressLess, Banja Luka. That failure can sometimes be a major driving force we learned from Laura Kurs from Estonia, who concluded: “Your failures can lift you up and help you even more in creating the perfect brand.”
Bojan Hadžihalilović, creative director of Fabrika from Sarajevo, revealed what it’s like to be a designer in these challenging times, and how to think about the time in which we live, explore and express your creativity.
In this digital age, we still haven’t forgotten the traditional media, like the radio, which, as it was concluded, got its wings from the internet. “Radio is a chameleon, it manages to adapt to each era and remains a beloved media,” said Maja Raković, director of the Naxi Group. Radio must definitely come out of the classical studios, and come closer to the listeners, said Goranka Jednak Maksimović, producer of RTV Vojvodina, in her presentation on “Radio on Asphalt and Grass – Radio as a Friend of Events and Festivals”.
Bearing in mind that 2018 was proclaimed the year of blockchain and that it should bring more and more products based on blockchain technology and its wider use in other industries, organizers also offered a very interesting lecture by Nikola Jokić, founder and CTO – Digital Assets Power Play Zagreb.
In line with global trends, the program also offered the unavoidable theme of the gaming industry, which today seriously competes with the film industry, which was described in detail by Stefan Wunderkid Djokic, Co-Founder of Kuvo, Banja Luka.
For all fans the cherry on the top of the program this year was the panel “Game of Thrones – Media Phenomenon”. This phenomenon was discussed by: Monika Ponjavić, film and TV critic, Branislav Predojević, journalist, Dejan Matijević, psychologist, and Đorđe Mandrapa, an architect and expert on historical reconstruction.
“We are largely in the age of romanticism, and are looking for an escape and some group idea, identifying with the heroes who want to change something,” the panelists said, adding that after the great success of this series, many series are also trying to be shocking and are using the Game of Thrones as their model.
The location of the Museum of Contemporary Art of RS turned into a creative oasis for a day, filled with plants and trees which infused new life into one of the most beautiful buildings in the center of Banja Luka. Learning, socializing, connecting and establishing new business cooperation this year were an indispensable part of the event. In addition to Uranus, Mercury and Jupiter, planet Venus, the queen of socializing and entertainment, was dedicated to creating new contacts, friendships and memories. The City of Banja Luka once again proved that it is an excellent host and has impressed the visitors who first visited the town on the Vrbas river.
Numerous interactive zones offered a lot of content. Whether you want to go into virtual reality, try a new make-up, or immortalize memories in creative photo booths, but also relax in interesting chill out zones with the best music and refreshments, good fun was guaranteed.
The luckiest visitors have won numerous gifts and prizes, and left the event with an even bigger smile on their face. After the lectures, panels and workshops, visitors continued socializing at the partyuntil the early morning hours, with the energetic performance of the kings of MASH UP, the Belgrade band SIZIP. Many visitors from the region and abroad used their stay during the weekend to tour the tourist and cultural destinations of Banja Luka and its surroundings.
The event was sponsored by friends and partners this year: the City of Banja Luka and the Museum of Contemporary Art of RS, UniCredit Bank Banja Luka, Mtel, Elektrokrajina, Prointer, Huawei, Fondacija Udružene žene, Franck, Admiral, Sensation, Link Group, Teleklik, HBO Adria, Staropramen, Rooster, Manja, Avon, Travel Office. The event was also covered by more than 30 media partners from all over the region.