The Spot Before the News is No Longer a Guarantee of Success

The golden age of television, where you could air a spot during prime time and be sure to achieve good reach, is over. Festival participants will have the opportunity to hear what changes await them and how to prepare for them.

Interviewed by: Sandra Babić
[email protected]
Photo: Željko Jelenski

The first regional gathering of media and market communication experts, the Weekend Media Festival, which takes place from September 18 to 21 in Rovinj, is directed by Tomislav Ricov, the director of the award-winning event agency Da!. Ahead of the festival, Ricov decided to share his views on the current situation in the domestic media market with Lider, discussing the reasons for organizing such a demanding gathering at this moment, both due to the topics and the participants, which are unique in the region.

• How did the agency Da! get involved in organizing the festival? Usually, such things are handled by companies, associations, or someone else, while event agencies are somewhat their project producers.

– Yes, it is not common for an event agency to organize a festival. More often, it is done by tourist agencies or those responsible for congress tourism. Since I was not thrilled with the way professional gatherings are organized here, I decided to offer something more progressive – to organize a festival that can compete with similar global events in both content and appearance. We worked without any experience in this type of organization, in a completely new way and without any burden of the past.

• And how do you see it?

– The organizers of previous conferences or festivals paid attention to the wrong things. For example, it seemed that their main concern was to ensure accommodation and technical support, and then calculate what the registration fee and profit should be. This is a completely wrong approach. Every gathering related to creativity should look different. The experiences I gained and the things I saw during visits to foreign festivals helped me in designing the domestic one.

• Who is your role model?

– I liked the Amsterdam Picnic the most, which, unlike the Cannes Festival, where the focus is on buying and selling media content, emphasizes creativity. This is certainly contributed by the selection of speakers such as Richard Branson from Virginia or actor Woody Harrelson.

• What makes Weekend Media unique?

– There are two basic things that differentiate this festival from other professional gatherings in Croatia: it is the first media festival and has a regional character. Among other things, we made a shift in organizing the space. Instead of classic lecture halls, presentations will be held in the former factory halls of the Tobacco Factory Rovinj, which we ‘discovered’ during preparations for the opening of the factory in Kanfanar. As an event agency, we have problems finding empty spaces where multimedia can be well seen and which can accommodate more participants. We made an effort to organize good entertainment and thus show that we also have creative people for that.

• Why didn’t you start with a domestic variant that could perhaps later be ‘upgraded’ with regional participants?

– That would not make sense because people from Croatian media mostly know each other and everyone is aware of what is happening in Croatian media. The point was for media professionals to meet for the first time in one place, get to know each other, and learn what is happening in the nearest neighborhood. For most media professionals, it is more important to hear experiences from countries with a similar economic and cultural background. Programs are already being exchanged among televisions at a lower level, ownership relations are intertwined, and people from the region are already turning towards each other. However, there is still no real cooperation, meaning there is no unique place where they can meet, connect, and socialize. Our idea is also for participants, in conversations with speakers and listening to lectures on various topics, to get acquainted with the latest trends from the media world and apply them in practice.

• How did you select the speakers? Was it difficult to bring them to Croatia?

– Most speakers at the Weekend Media Festival come for free, primarily because the area we cover is interesting to them. On the other hand, they are also interested in how this part of Europe is doing. I must thank our collaborators, such as program director Mija Pećina, who contacted her associates from the time she lived in Los Angeles. Angela Buljan-Šiber helped us bring a guest from Facebook, and we received many calls from industry experts who simply suggested whom they would like to hear and see. The story started all at once, so I got the impression that everyone was just waiting for something like this to happen.

• It seems you have material for next year as well.

– Yes, in the end, it turned out that we have too many speakers; we had to distribute them into two halls and organize parallel lectures. Even with that, at one point we had to stop and draw a line. We are currently preparing the groundwork for next year.

• If judging by the program, the latest trends in media and marketing will be covered, and foreign speakers mainly come from countries that are several steps ahead of the region. Will that be a problem?

– The trends are already here, but not to the extent as in Western Europe or America. Changes are literally at the door. Of course, there are several opinions about this: from the one that traditional media will continue to grow to the one that they will completely disappear. However, television, which has the largest market share, is transforming and introducing new trends. For example, IPTV already exists with MAXtv, televisions are launching internet portals, broadband internet is penetrating more and more, and soon we will be able to watch programs on our mobile phones. It is just a matter of days when we will align with the West. A revolution is underway. Consumers are truly becoming kings who will be able to choose what, in what format, and when to watch. The golden age of television, where you could air a TV spot before the news and be sure to achieve the planned reach, is over. That is precisely why it is better for participants to hear what will happen and how to prepare for it rather than discussing the past or trends on the decline.

• Which companies are most ready to embrace new trends? Are foreign-owned companies in the region the drivers of new approaches?

– Such a situation was present seven years ago, and it will continue today. Back then, company leaders in some parts of the world began to apply new models and suggested that they be applied in smaller markets as well. This is a rule that, of course, has exceptions.