With most awards, the audience ultimately sees a few minutes on stage, the names of the winners and the projects that made it to the top. Far less visible is the process that comes before that: who evaluates which work, how attempts are made to avoid group influence and at what point jury members first hear the opinions of their colleagues.
Ahead of the 14th edition of SoMo Borac powered by Aleph, which will be held on 23 October at Tvornica kulture in Zagreb, the organisers have presented in greater detail the process used to decide the finalists and winners of the regional competition for digital projects.
The system begins with a division by discipline. SoMo Borac has two streams, SoMo Media and SoMo Advertising, while the Advertising jury is further organised into four groups: Social & Content, Digital Creative, Product & Tech and Performance. The idea behind this division is for submitted projects to be evaluated by people who understand the field to which the work belongs, rather than having all jury members go through the same set of categories.
SoMo Media uses a separate system adapted to its categories, while one rule applies to everyone: jury members do not evaluate work from their own agency, company, startup or group.
The first encounter with submitted work takes place individually. Each member independently reviews the entries and gives scores based on three criteria: originality and creativity, quality of execution and achieved results. Only after that does the part of the process begin in which different perspectives are opened up.
The online judging system has been used since the early days of the competition and has been improved over the years, including with contributions from experts in behavioural psychology. The works are shown to each member in a random order, while the scale from one to six has no neutral midpoint. This encourages jury members to form a clearer assessment of each work, while aiming to reduce the influence of potential biases.
What is new this year comes between the first score and the final
In SoMo Advertising, a calibration discussion is being introduced this year for works that enter the broader pool of candidates for the final.
Jury members can then compare perspectives, raise questions and hear the arguments of colleagues from their group. The discussion, however, does not end with a joint selection of finalists. After it, each member again decides independently whether to keep their original score or change it.
The final scores from that round form the list of finalists, which will be announced seven to ten days before the awards ceremony.
Brigita Krog from Imago, a member of the SoMo Advertising jury, says she has been following changes in the process for several years.
“As I have been judging at SoMo Borac for several years in a row, I am really glad to see how the digital scene is developing and how the submitted work becomes increasingly strong and bold from year to year. I am especially glad that Ružica and the entire organising team genuinely listen to jury feedback and continuously improve the processes accordingly, introduce new categories and adapt them to what is happening in the market,” said Krog.
A joint discussion does not mean a joint vote
The final round brings a jury discussion about the work that has made it through, but even then the final decision remains individual. After the joint discussion, each member once again gives their scores independently.
The winners are therefore determined not by a show of hands or group agreement, but by the final scoring. Jury members themselves do not know the names of the winners before the awards ceremony.
SoMo Borac powered by Aleph will be held on 23 October at Tvornica kulture in Zagreb. Entries are open until 29 September, while Tardy Bird tickets are available until 30 September, after which they will be sold at full price.
