The Digital Day 2022 Conference was held on June 9 under the slogan “The End of the World as We Know It”
The first impression that imposes, after the participants had the opportunity to listen to leading experts as lecturers and panellists of the conference is even clearer: business within the “old world” and behavior according to its rules became – unprofitable. The new world of digital, after the pandemic, shaped in front of our eyes from all of us requires the openness of the mind, flexibility and willingness to plunge in it without prejudice.
Digital ad budgets higher by a third in 2021.
Djordje Bukinac presented the results of the IAB ADEX report for 2021 as the first participant for the state of digital advertising in Serbia and Europe.
During the last year, the funds set aside in Serbia for digital advertising amounted to about 72 million euros, with a recorded annual growth of 28.8%, which was only below European (30.5%).
Although rates are excellent, it was pointed out that there was a lot to be done for further growth – only 10 euros per capita spent in Serbia (by which Serbia is in third place from the end of the list), while the European average is 115 euros.
Among the key segments, the largest growth recorded is for: search (40%), social media (37%) and video advertising (35.5%).
How to charge a subscription for content (in the Balkans)?
Already on the first panel entitled “End Of Media Consumption as We Know It?” the problem of misunderstanding the principle of monetizing content by the media was observed and analyzed. Nedim Sabic, the SEO expert, presented the view that people would be ready to pay a subscription for media content if and only if they have tangible and concrete benefits because people in our region do not have enough money for those purposes.
Namely, although digitally prone, inhabitants of the Balkans want to pay for content if it is served with more innovative billing techniques (SMS, for example).
The “Magic figure” mentioned during the panel, which a subscriber would want to pay for content is around 1000 dinars. Although for certain content providers, he would pay perhaps, even more, the border was still set to less than 10 euros. It was also noted that a long-term subscription was important for the survival of any business model, not a single content sale.
After the introductory panel, the conference moved into two tracks, and visitors could choose the contents they wanted to learn more.
Glovo is no longer (only) delivery
Rodrigo Alier from Glovo indicated that this company has been rapidly transformed in a dynamic way and that it is difficult to view it as (exclusively) the delivery company.
As Amazon has long been an online bookstore, so Glavo has evolved into a kind of market for itself. Namely, brands from the domain of restaurants, food and retailers that were part of the Prime delivery were recognized by this platform as a marketplace where a large number of quality transactions occur and they act as partners and advertisers.
The metamorphosis of these brands from passive to active participants on the platform resulted in establishing the platform for bidders, beneficiaries and, recently, brands as advertising partners to all meet up in the same digital place.
Attention span the same, the amount of signal greater
Vanja Bertalan, CEO of Human reminded us that biological evolution cannot even deceive to speed up. The range of our attention is predefined and the only thing that changes is the amount and type of irritation (signal) that consumes that attention.
New generations are overwhelmed with signals from the digital world and are not interested in old models and conduct rules. However, Vanja blurred the thesis of the new generations with a smaller attention span. It is evolutionary given and more or less the same as the previous generation, but the difference is that it is divided into far more signals that “fight” for that attention.
This distinction is an essential element of understanding how advertisers should and can also reach “digital natives”.
Grey and colorful, hand in hand
The “Adland In Times of Change” panel brought a lot of lament over the current situation in the industry and problems with finding and retaining experts and employees in it. The conclusions after the panel were mostly unsaid and relate to the urgent need for advertising agencies to, as best as they know, find ways to attract young talent and from the more lucrative industries like IT or startup scene.
A far more optimistic was a panel dedicated to venues in the event industry. The discussion with Nikola Vrdoljak from Agency 404, Ivan Petrović from Exit Foundation and Sanjin Ćorović from Production Pool showed hat shock the event industry had to pass over the past two years.
In order to survive, the events had to be transformed into a digital (or hybrid) format. With the pandemic waning, the wave of live/physical events overwhelmed the world eager for social interaction, and interpersonal connections, overshadowing the non-live format. According to panellists, non-live formats, with and without an audience will continue to exist, but in a far smaller extent and as an additional value to live events.
However, the panellists warned caution after this “post-covid” period passes because event organizers will have to focus on who they are and what actual value they provide to their participants. The technological innovation that has been forcefully applied with the beginning of the pandemic will continue to apply to virtual reality and has yet to be seen how VR / AR will affect the event industry.
How to teach Google who are you?
Jason Barnard, The Brand Serp Guy deliberately shocked the audience with his lecture referred to Google. According to him, Google (like all Big Tech platforms) released “to drive” their algorithms of artificial intelligence that can be compared to small children thirsty for knowledge.
If we treat these “children” the correct way, the “parent” way and we explain to them in a clear, credible and consistent way, and they will recognize us and reward us with an optimal presentation on the search results on the Google page.
Personal and company branding based on the specific properties of the facts we want to tell Google is becoming more important because it is an intention of anyone’s segments of one’s existence and indexes translated into a unique page dedicated to that brand. In this sense, the search results about us will be our minibar and will significantly affect the commitment of those searching us if they interact with us or not.
The conference was completed by awarding traditional MIXX Awards for the best digital campaigns and projects.