A colleague from Sarajevo writes about her impressions from the Content Academy, which starts in Belgrade as well, on October 05. This is her full story:

“Several years ago, I would probably roll my eyes to the term “content marketing”. It all seemed like a fancy terminology which I have never been a fan of and an attempt to reinvent the wheel. Content. Well, there has always been content and content has always sold a product. You need content for advertising and everyone knows that, so why make a rocket science out of it? That’s what I thought.

When I go back to the famous phase “Content is king”, coined by Bill Gates more than two decades ago, I’m sure that it makes much more sense and it seems logical. After all, the guy is a billionaire, so he must know something. I’m ashamed to say it now under my real name, because I always laughed at those “wise guys” who quoted him.

But, let those who have never changed their mind be the first to throw a stone, right? 🙂 You learn from your mistakes, and I decided to correct mine by attending the Content Academy.

Cheesy, I know, but it was love at first sight. Words of some of the lecturers echoed in my head, although, to be honest, all of them were fantastic. I always have this nervous feeling before the first lecture. An avalanche of thoughts, such as what will other participants be like, what if someone asks me something I don’t know, what if I embarrass myself, until Bora Miljanović says the following at the first lecture: “Let’s get to know each other, to see who we are.” And that’s it, you don’t have time to ponder anymore, just to say who you are, an ice breaker. And then comes a new avalanche, but this time of new information and a fantastic atmosphere.

Bora shared with us his impressions from the three-day conference Content Marketing World 2019, which he attended in Cleveland this year. The West is already focused on “What after social media”, while we still have to persuade clients to use SoMe, because if they are not there, then they are virtually nowhere, to put it mildly… Drones deliver packages in the West, while we still wait in queues to pay an electricity bill, because the so-called hackers from the wide world might skim our accounts and, you know, no one is a fool enough to trust payment cards and e-banking …

It seems that, no matter how good it is that we strive to keep up with trends, we also have to be aware of where we live and to what extent implementation of those trends is realistic in the countries of the region. It was quite shocking to see how many young people consumed content via mobile phones and how many via computers, or, for instance, how many people actually clicked and paid attention to heftily paid banners on portals. Hmmm. Defining TG is a key to a good strategy. See, Bora, I memorised that.

A super cool thing is that the Academy participants are from various professions, with an age gap of up to two decades, so we have a clash of advocates of “the old school and the new trends”. However, can one go without the other? Can classic PR go without new technologies, and can new technologies go without classic PR? Hmmm, an unbreakable bond.

After a lunch break, with your belly full and your blood pressure low, it’s difficult to follow even the most interesting lecture, but a key to keeping attention of those with low blood pressure who yearn for caffeine was revealed by Ana Branković with exceptional practical video examples. Wow. Tens of people who create content are behind 30 seconds of only one video, high-quality video.

How to create content for a campaign, how to strategically plan it, which channels of communication to select for a specific TG, what’s the best timing and a half an hour of group work afterwards… I won’t say that now we know everything in that area, but we have definitely become aware of the significance of content.

Bill Gates was right, content is king. And we have 5 weeks ahead to become kings and queens of content with new lecturers.

Stay tuned…”