A video about everyday life on Lošinj can encourage someone to visit the island, while a television advertisement reaches audiences through different viewing habits. For marketing, it is important to understand how much that attention is worth and what it delivers after the viewing. The cost of attention will be the central theme of the conference segment of the 14th edition of SoMo Borac powered by Aleph, whose programme has been announced ahead of the gathering on 23 October at Zagreb’s Tvornica kulture.
The new names on the programme include experts working in brand building, television advertising, digital media and tool development using artificial intelligence, as well as a creator who has turned stories about her island into content with hundreds of thousands of views.
Tihana Dakić-Barichievich, creator of the project GoLošinj – Destination Storytelling, films the people and everyday life of Lošinj, and her videos also bring visitors to the island. In her talk “Who Let This Woman on the Internet?”, she will discuss the project’s beginnings, from private sketches and encouragement from a persistent friend to videos in which she jumps into the sea wearing a black suit. Her experience also raises the question of how personal storytelling and humour can become part of destination promotion.
Ignazio Morello, Chief Marketing Officer at Verne, will discuss how to assess which attention is worth building. His talk “Hegel’s Hair: Choosing which attention is worth the cost” starts with the example of gradual hair loss: losing a few strands does not change much, but continued loss leads to a threshold beyond which the change becomes obvious. Morello will connect that logic with attention and present how he assesses its value, using an example from his work at Verne.
Changes in audience habits will also be the subject of a talk by Ivan Ljubičić, Managing Director of Mediavision and Pickbox. In the session “TV in the Age of Scrolling”, he will present data and examples on viewing habits and the possibilities of television advertising. Ljubičić has more than 15 years of experience in the media industry, including the development of projects such as Pickbox NOW, NEM Dubrovnik and NEM Zagreb.
Petar Pavić, co-founder of S.T.A.R. Digital Group, will offer a broader view of digital media. The description of his talk “Medium” consists of 79 terms arranged alphabetically, including platforms, subscriptions, clickbait and credibility. The connections between them will form the basis of a discussion about today’s media.
The programme also addresses technology that is changing how newsrooms work. Stipe Grubišić, Chief Operating Officer at Dnevnik.si, will present his view of artificial intelligence as a way to support journalists’ abilities in his talk “The Journalist Is Tony Stark. AI Is the Suit.” The comparison with Tony Stark’s suit will help him explain how tools can enable journalists to work faster, investigate more deeply and develop better stories.
Ivan Ivanković, founder of Vibe Coding Academy, will present the use of artificial intelligence in solving everyday business problems. Without programming knowledge, he has built more than 25 tools over the past year, including an application for monitoring water quality in Zagreb and Split and an analysis of 1.6 million tourist reviews. In his talk “How to Turn Your Frustration at Work into a Tool, Without Programming”, he will demonstrate the path from describing a problem to creating a functional solution. More than 250 people without programming knowledge have mastered this approach at his workshops so far.
Alongside the conference, SoMo Borac powered by Aleph will also feature an awards ceremony recognising the best regional digital projects.
