SoMo Borac powered by Aleph is the most prestigious digital regional award and is extremely important for anyone involved in digital today. The competition is growing each year, and everyone eager to win regional recognition for their work puts in maximum effort so that the expert jury recognizes their campaign as outstanding. Each of the 17 categories requires a quality campaign presented in an original way, and the submission must clearly present the actual results achieved.
Creativity and the way the submission is written, as well as the assessment of creativity in general, are quite subjective (anyone who has ever been on a jury would probably agree), but the results must be presented objectively, clearly, and transparently. Considering that in the SoMo Global and SoMo Growth categories, achieved results account for up to 70% of the total score, it’s essential to pay attention to the writing of the submission so that the jury gets a complete overview of the campaign they are evaluating.
Therefore, I’ve put effort into writing down some guidelines that could be useful when writing your submission and increasing the chances that your project will enter the finals. I want to emphasize that projects that do not make it to the finals are not necessarily bad projects (or poor submissions), but competition often dictates the course of the competition. It’s up to each applicant to try to present the value of their project in the best possible way.
Hierarchy of Goals: BUSINESS → BRAND → MEDIA
I will try to illustrate this through examples of cases that I consider good examples in writing submissions, but first, it is essential to clarify that the foundation of each submission is a) a precisely defined business goal, b) a marketing goal that can be divided into brand and performance/direct response goals, and c) a media goal. All of these must be clearly and concretely defined so that the jury has a starting point for comparing the results during evaluation.
Case 1: A good example of setting goals:
- Business goal/result: We increased market share by +3pp over 6 months, with +1pp being the goal.
- Brand goal/result: We increased brand awareness by +5pp over 6 months, with +2.5pp being the goal.
- Media goal/result: We achieved 55% reach with a frequency of 2.5 on a weekly basis within the target group and generated 2,000,000 impressions over the 6-month campaign period, with the goal being 54% reach, 2 weekly frequencies, and 1,900,000 impressions.
Case 2: A good example of setting goals:
- Business goal/result: We increased market share by +3pp over 6 months, with +1pp being the goal (taking into account last year’s results and category growth, i.e., providing context).
- Brand goal/result: We increased brand awareness by +5pp over 6 months, with +2.5pp being the goal (considering last year’s results and category growth, i.e., providing business context).
- Media goal/result: We achieved 55% reach with a frequency of 2.5 on a weekly basis within the target group and generated 2,000,000 impressions over the 6-month campaign period, with the goal being 54% reach, 2 weekly frequencies, and 1,900,000 impressions (considering that we did not exceed the planned budget, i.e., providing context for a more complete picture).
KPIs within the framework and how to achieve them: BUSINESS → MARKETING → MEDIA
There are many different KPIs that your brand tracks and that you consider important for you. It’s essential to explain in your case what you monitor, and ideally, you should have 2 to a maximum of 4 strategic goals (although you can present fewer goals in the case). Below are just some of the KPIs you may consider when submitting your case.
- Business KPIs
- These include market position, market growth, profitability, profit growth, etc.
- How to achieve them: Here, you should rely on internal data from your organization, but an additional plus would be adding any context from the category that can be obtained through external research agencies or from your business partners.
- Marketing KPIs
- Marketing KPIs can be divided into brand and performance/direct response KPIs. Examples of brand KPIs include brand awareness, campaign recall, purchase intent measurement, while examples of performance marketing goals include the number of conversions (leads/sales), ROAS (return on advertising spend), iROAS (incremental return on advertising spend), LTV (lifetime value), CAC (customer acquisition cost), and the like.
- How to achieve them: Internal data can be obtained either through the platforms themselves or through third-party research. Most major platforms offer some form of brand or conversion lift (e.g., Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.) or geo conversion lift tests where we can measure the incremental value of advertising, i.e., how much, for example, sales occurred when comparing people who saw the ad to those who didn’t. When it comes to brand lift, we can see the difference in the positive response to a question like “Have you heard of the brand xxx?” between the audience that saw and the one that didn’t see the ad.
- Media KPIs
- Reach, frequency, number of impressions, clicks, social engagement, viewability, etc.
- How to achieve them: Internal data can be obtained either through the platforms themselves or through third-party research.
These are the most common mistakes in submissions
Finally, my colleague Mario Frančešević from the agency SeekandHit, who last year won the SoMo Global and Special Mention by Aleph awards with the campaign “Valamar ongoing campaigns” (SeekandHit and Valamar), pointed out the most common mistakes that should definitely be avoided. Mario is also a member of this year’s jury, so his advice is worth considering.
The first mistake he highlights is that applicants often emphasize metrics that have become irrelevant in the performance category when it comes to marketing KPIs, such as CTR, impressions, clicks, and the like.
Additionally, many campaigns compare different time periods. Mario emphasized the importance of comparing the same period or, if it is necessary to compare different periods, it is essential to indicate why this is so (for example, seasonality).
His colleague Antonija Vržina, who, together with the rest of the team, worked on the submission for the aforementioned award-winning project, also added her comments. Antonija highlighted the technical elements of the submission itself and noted that, although 1,000 characters of written submission and a video up to 3 minutes long may seem like little space to showcase all the unique features of your project, it is enough to show everyone what sets you apart from other projects. Advice: Be concise, get straight to the point, and clearly emphasize your main advantages. Remember that the video is your main tool—the same story can be told in many ways, so find the best one to impress the jury.
One more thing that is always a plus, but it’s worth mentioning, is to think outside the box. The only thing better than good results is good results achieved through innovative methods and told in a creative way.
And, of course, don’t forget to enjoy the process! The goal is to win the award, but don’t forget all the other benefits, from enjoying the process of creating the submission and the video to socializing with colleagues from the industry and exchanging experiences. And when you successfully submit your project and eagerly await October 25 and SoMo Borac, don’t forget to say “bravo” to yourself—no matter who wins, each project is special and successful in its own way, adds Antonija.
Conclusion
And finally, what is most important if you want to win a SoMo in the performance category? If you have achieved excellent business results through good strategic preparation and tactical implementation, you have already done a large part of the job, but you haven’t yet reached the goal.
Therefore, the purpose of this article is precisely to help you prepare your case and present the results you have achieved through the business → marketing → media framework. If you can holistically present your planned and achieved goals and provide the necessary context for your category, the jury will have a complete insight and will be able to evaluate your project, and the chances for excellent ratings will be even higher. Many brands achieve excellent results in all three categories, but when writing the entire case, they miss some details that can make a difference in a strong and numerous competition.
Finally, I give one concrete example that follows this flow of KPI presentation. Last year’s case from SeekandHit and Valamar for the campaign “Valamar ongoing campaigns.”
Within the case, the business result and growth (KPI – revenue and transaction growth) are clearly indicated with specific context (growth without an increase in the budget), as well as the marketing KPI or performance KPI (return on ad spend – ROAS). Additionally (although the results are not mentioned), it is noted that other activities were conducted to measure advertising effectiveness, such as brand and geo conversion tests.
Author: Marko Mikeš, Aleph Group
