The Balkans are turning into a hotspot of exponential growth of the Digital Marketing sector. On 3 June, an event of regional importance proved this trend. The tenth edition of Digital Day Lite took place in Belgrade. Traditionally organized by the IAB Serbia Association, the conference broke a series of records in terms of audience and media sharing. Among the guests and keynote lectures, there was Gerton Bejo, our CEO. For Vatra, this was a golden chance to prove what we claim: we connect brands with 55 million people from all over the Balkans.
And yes, we did it.
The event took place in a thriving context. The marketing industry and the advertisers in Serbia, especially in Belgrade, are turning their eyes to the advantages of the digital world. Serbia is becoming a regional champ on digital marketing. To be more precise, last year Serbian digital marketers have spent on digital advertising a little over 56 million euros. This market has grown by 19.5 percent, which places the country in third place in Europe. In a decade the market has increased as much as six times.
In its tenth edition, the goal of Digital Day Lite was to analyze how much the digital industry has changed in the past decade. Are we witnessing an unprecedented r/evolution? To answer this fundamental question, the conference was marked by panel discussions, four keynote lectures, and two case studies of representatives of leading global and domestic digital companies. Among the brilliant speeches of top market experts from TikTok and Burger King UK, guests in the hall and viewers online also enjoyed a lecture from Gerton on how marketing agencies need to get off the reptile mode. We at the agency were among the lucky ones who enjoyed his performance online, in a meeting room with snacks and drinks.
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On the other hand, the most striking fact that we were facing right after the event was the regional and international impact in the traditional media (TV & Radio) and across the network. We are thankful to several media outlets, like Progressive Magazine, which considered VATRA “as leading digital marketing in Albania. Serbia Business and Biznis Telegraf published very accurate and detailed accounts of the event, where the space dedicated to the lecture of Gerton made us proud.
To make you realize the size of the event echo, news about Digital Day Lite was written in 5 different languages. Among articles in Albanian, in English, in German, or Serbian, there were also accounts in Portuguese. The event was reported by journalists from more than ten countries and by countless online outlets with domains from all over the Balkans.
Meanwhile, we also registered a considerable increase of traffic in our website. Dozens of potential regional partners and clients reached out thanks to the idea to link the interactive business card of Gerton with a giant QR code. Which, by the way, you can scan in the image above and still get in contact.