Market Landscape

What are the “hottest sectors” for start-ups? 

The gaming industry and software and IT solutions, as well as providing solutions in connecting internal and public datasets to accelerate research and development.

What kind of sectors are the rising stars in the local economy? 

The gaming industry and software and IT solutions.

 

Communication Environment

What holds sway in your region – traditional or new media types and influencers? How is that changing?

This type of question must be answered considering the specific needs of the target audience and its characteristics. In brief, a more mature audience aged 40-50 upwards, still gets most of its information from traditional media, both print and TV, while the population under 30-40 gets its information mostly from online issues and social media. When it comes to social media, influencers on Facebook and Instagram can affect the perception of audiences ranging from 15-35. It is essential to bear in mind that the influence of online media and social media is constantly growing and that it is estimated that as many as 81% of people in Serbia use the internet on a daily basis.

What is the influence ecosystem – the media, analysts, consultants and non-traditional influencers (bloggers etc). And where to start in this ecosystem?

A lot of tools can be combined in a way to reach the communication goals but the mass media still prevails, especially TV, since the average Serb spends more than 5 hours daily in front of the TV.

What kind of stories tends to dominate influencer/media attention? What type of stories receive little attention?

When a PR campaign is only launched online for instance, it has great chance of reaching offline media and the public at large if it has some kind of social engagement. The influencer community, on the other hand, is usually product oriented and promotes the product by emphasizing all of its qualities, prices, comparisons etc. The effect of the stories depends on the product and the budget for its promotion.

 

Communication Tools

What communication tools are the best to use in your market – media relations, social media, employer branding, events, content marketing etc.?

When it comes to defining the best tool, one must keep in mind the specifics of the target group as well as the communication messages. Media relations are a good tool for a non-branded campaign, since most of the local media work in a hardened economy which is facing many financial difficulties. As a result, company-news is hard to get into news sections without a relevant cause or without paid cooperation or support.

What kind of communication software are you using in your daily activities? (media and social media monitoring, CRMs, knowledge management, project management, news distribution software etc. – give names, please).

In our PR department we use media monitoring and reporting, daily, weekly, quarterly, yearly reports depending on the needs of the clients and their targets. There are different kinds of measurement tools depending on needs.

 

Examples

Do you have any “horror stories” or anecdotes that demonstrate contemporary PR/communication practice in your region?

We cooperate with the media and other communicators to meet clients’ needs as well as those of the media and the influencer community. To date, we haven’t encountered or caused any specific failure that we can share, but what is peculiar is that the communication market is changing constantly and an increasingly innovative approach must be designed for each client. Good planning and quality story-telling has proven to one of the most convenient ways of promoting a product, service etc. By emphasizing the qualities and unique aspects that makes our message different to others on the market.