GOLDEN DRUM, 9 – 10 October 2024, Portorož, Slovenia
We had the pleasure of speaking with Mojca Briščik, Chief Executive Officer at SOZ – Slovenian Advertising Chamber & President at Golden Drum Festival. During our conversation, we delved into topics such as how Golden Drum distinguishes itself from other festivals and the unique opportunities it offers the advertising community. We also explored Briščik’s perspectives on industry trends shaping the advertising landscape, as well as how Golden Drum addresses challenges and introduces innovations in its upcoming edition. Additionally, Mojca shared insights into SOZ’s initiatives to support and promote the advertising industry in Slovenia and offered valuable advice for young professionals aspiring to make an impact in the field.
How does Golden Drum differentiate itself from other festivals, and what unique opportunities does it provide to the advertising community?
More than ever we believe in the power of the festival, what it brings to the creative community and to all the young creatives in Europe. To be honest, Golden Drum, with its active role in the creative industry, will always strive to stimulate new ideas and thinking within different communities. And since the creative economy has a crucial role in changing society for the better we shall never forget about the younger generations. Golden Drum is proud to be able to embrace younger generations, who will one day shape our industry by supporting them along the way, and nurturing their confidence to become tomorrow’s leaders!
Actually, when setting the main goals to be achieved in the near future, we included the focus on Young Drummers as well, especially due to the lack of interest among them in the advertising industry. So, throughout the competition and accessibility to the festival we gain their trust which we cannot take for granted. We believe that with transparency and consistency we will built a now younger community of future winners. As we’ve heard from them so many times this year was meeting and talking to jury presidents, jury members or renewed professionals from client side or agencies who just stepped from the main stage a priceless experience. Golden Drum indeed connects people from different ages and backgrounds. We are proud of that.
In your role, you have a unique perspective on industry trends. What trends do you foresee shaping the advertising landscape in the coming years?
People first, especially taking in consideration the youngest generations, followed by generative AI, but still as Marketing AI Institute founder & CEO Paul Roetzer made a good point, that brands need to approach it with “a sense of urgency”.
I still believe that long-term influencer-brand relationships will shape the landscape as well, but needs to be more transparent – personally I support penalties for untagged paid partnerships, and we will see the surge in the creator economy as well. With the growth of the creator economy, user-generated content has grown in popularity and importance, especially for brands.
Last but not least investing in flexible, iterative marketing strategy focusing on cooperation and adaptability. The future is brighter for those who can be actually more agile.
The advertising industry faces various challenges. How does Golden Drum address these challenges, and what innovations can participants expect in the upcoming edition?
In recent past we have been “challenged” by covid and still today political tensions, very much alive in Europe, but we managed to find the way to shine again! We’ve brought the festival back “home” in Portorož and gathered people from more than 20 countries across Europe.
As you may know Golden Drum is known for its strong and fair competition. We are proud to be one of the 7 regional festivals in the world to be included in the WARC ranking. Each year we record more and more entries from independent agencies that want to show their creative power and prove they are just as good as the big networks. No budget can limit magic of creativity and we are happy to be the platform to give everybody, big or small, a fair chance to shine. And I do hope you all still remember that one of the big winners last year’s Golden Drum festival was Via Media from Sarajevo and followed by – from the region – Studijo Tumpić/Prenc, Bruketa&Žinić&Grey both from Croatia and McCann Skopje.
We try to elevate and adjust the competition structure each year to keep it relevant to the everchanging trends of communication.
For this year, since we are celebrating the 30th birthday, and you are all invited to join us from 9 – 10 October in Portorož, Slovenia, we will welcome on stage – just to mention a few names (I can’t disclose all of them yet 😊):
- Kentaro Kimura, International Chief Creative Officer and Corporate Officer, Hakuhodo, Founder, Hakuhodo Kettle, Japan
- Pum Lefebure, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, USA
- Janet Levine, Global Head of Invention, Mindshare, USA
- Guy Wieynk, Global Chief Executive Officer, AnalogFolk Group (AFG), UK
- Adam Kerj, Chief Creative Officer, Accenture Song Europe
As the CEO of SOZ, can you elaborate on the chamber’s initiatives to support and promote the advertising industry in Slovenia? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations by SOZ that you are particularly excited about?
Last November we just rebranded SOZ. It was a result of a two-year project – and extensive research among members, professionals from the industry, focused groups and 1on1 interviews to set up the new vision & goals reflecting in our new identity.
So, today we are ready to focus on education for our members, under SOZ Academy, we have a new colleague with a law degree helping in setting the bar in the self-regulation field, we just gave feedback to the Government about the draft of the Media Act, we will present shortly the new document od “Good Practices” set by the Advertisers Association called “From Strategy to Marketing Communications” (3 key steps for successful and effective communication).
Lastly, we will upgrade “Sustainable advertising standards”, project lounched two years ago. This year we will establish a sustainable development council, who will be indeed the hart of the project. But more to come in the following months.
Of course, we are proud of our successful Effie Slovenia program, Slovenian Adverting festival – SOF, the biggest ad event in Slovenia and as you know, our international project Golden Drum, celebrating 30 years already! 😊
For young professionals aspiring to make an impact in the advertising industry, what advice would you offer based on your experiences?
Keep wider interests, don’t focus on one and keep learning. Be humble and don’t take things for granted!
