Market Landscape

What are the major corporations across sectors that have decision-making units based in the region?
There are big corporate offices like McCan Zagreb or Dialog, an exclusive affiliate of Ketchum, but none are strong enough to deserve the name of decision-makers. In the past few years, many smaller agencies have become local leaders, such as 404, Millenium promotion or the Mangjura agency.

What are the “hottest sectors” for start-ups?
At the moment – B2B Tech and Consumer Tech, innovations, tourism and ecology.

What kind of sectors are the rising stars in the local economy?
Definitely tourism, as Zagreb is increasingly recognized not just as a weekend destination, but as a year-round, must-visit place.

 

Communication Environment

What holds sway in your region – traditional or new media types and influencers? How is that changing?
The Croatian media market is characterized by a strong television sector, a concentrated national press with falling print runs, and a growing sector of native online and legacy online news providers. 56% Croatians are turning to social media as an alternative to traditional media.

What is the influence ecosystem – the media, analysts, consultants and non-traditional influencers (bloggers etc). And where to start in this ecosystem?
Influencers in Croatia are still not well defined. It is a case of every man for himself. There are very few realistic numbers that come from market research which include influencers. If you are in need of an influencer, you have to ask around, google random people etc. We need a database of contacts including names, field, number of followers etc.

Where to start?
That is a hard question because it depends a lot on the field of work. If you need a food or beauty blogger or influencer you go directly to them. If you need an ICT or tourism influencer, you will probably have to do way more research.

What kind of stories tends to dominate influencer/media attention? What type of stories receive little attention?
People are increasingly starting to appreciate real life stories which, as we know, are the only ones that offer credibility. So it’s safe to say that innovative stories and ways of storytelling work better, earn more money and are likely to go viral. People can recognize genuine influencers from the fake ones.

 

Communication Tools

What communication tools are the best to use in your market – media relations, social media, employer branding, events, content marketing, etc.?
Private, group messaging and chat tools, sales promotions, Public Relations, social media, social responsibility.

What kind of communication software are you using in your daily activities?
We are outsourcing all our software needs, and it’s shown to be a good business model for us.

 

Examples

Do you have any “horror stories” or anecdotes that demonstrate contemporary PR/communication practice in your region?
Recently, we had a major crisis in Croatia in terms of a pipeline being damaged by an oil company in Slavonski Brod. This crisis had a major impact on the health of the population, which was without drinking water for more than 2 weeks. The communication of this crisis was not made according to professional rules, rather it was not done at all. We are also seeing more and more frequent political crisis situations. As an agency, we were not involved in these crises!

 


The characteristics of Croatian market prepared by: Abeceda komunikacije