What does a career look like when you accidentally enter marketing and end up in Dubai in important positions working for Google and Hilton? That’s what Iva Kutle Škrlec talks about in the new episode of SoMoCast – a leader in marketing who built her professional path between Croatia and the Middle East on global brands, and in the process discovered how important contacts, curiosity and courage are for growth in today’s marketing.
From “accidental marketer” to global career
Iva openly admits that she never planned to enter marketing – her career was supposed to be focused on politics and diplomacy. But she tried her hand in marketing completely by accident at a successful agency where she came in as a beginner, and after seven years left as a director. Her story shows how coincidence can sometimes be the best career move.
“I entered marketing completely by accident. I always thought I would be in diplomacy, but sometimes others recognize who you truly are before you do,” says Iva.
After years spent in the agency, she knew she would stay in marketing, but decided to change perspective and try working from the other, client side. She combined her personal love for travel with work and ventured into the tourism sphere, specifically hotel marketing. Although she admits that this was one of the most intense periods in her career, it was precisely that experience that prepared her for what followed – the move to Dubai.
“I came to Dubai with ten years of experience, but without a single contact. And that was the hardest part – building everything from scratch,” explains Iva, emphasizing how much the contacts she had before and gained during her career in Croatia helped her. She describes Dubai as a market that is at the same time very slow and very fast, as a place where business opportunities are born from relationships.
Google, Hilton and marketing “beyond recognition”
From Dubai, Iva led global campaigns for Emirates, Etihad, and is currently the Director of the Destination Marketing team at Hilton and manages Google’s Tourism Development Center, where she says she learned the biggest professional lesson: that innovation does not exist without mistakes.
“Google teaches you that mistakes are necessary. When you’re ‘uncomfortably excited’, you know you’re doing the right thing.”
At Hilton, she leads projects and teams in markets that are growing faster than most of the world. She describes the company as an exceptionally organized system that connects a century-long legacy with modern agility, but what fascinates her especially is the cooperation with tourist boards and the development of destinations from scratch. In the conversation, she also reveals how marketing in 2025 is completely different from what it was ten years ago.
“The volume of data, tools, and partners we work with has never been greater, but the core of the job remains the same to create value that makes sense to people.”
She also reflected on artificial intelligence, which, as Iva says, is already deeply changing the way we travel and make decisions. “AI is not an end in itself. The question is not how to use it, but which problem we are solving with it.”
At the end of the conversation, Iva shares a piece of advice she wishes someone had given her at the beginning of her career:
“Relax. You will make mistakes, and that’s okay. Give your best, but don’t identify yourself with your job, you are not your title.”
Listen to the full conversation with Iva Kutle Škrlec in the third episode of SoMoCast. Find out what a career in Dubai looks like, what she learned from working at Google and Hilton, and why she believes discomfort is often the best sign that you are on the right path.
