More works will compete for Golden Drum awards this year

More than half of this year's works come from independent agencies, and the new Creative Media Excellence section exceeded the organizers' expectations. Winners will be announced on October 10th at an awards ceremony powered by Mastercard. The motto of the Golden Drum remains a fierce competition, a good school, a lively party and a hell of a challenge.

Registrations for this year's match are closed. International juries have already started evaluating the submitted works.

Advertisers, agencies and other experts in marketing communications submitted their works in 5 different sections this year: Single-channel, Multi-channel, Craft excellence, Creative media excellence, Creative business excellence and a special section All juries.

Miha Bevc, director of the competition, said: "The Golden Drum traditionally plays an important role within the creative, marketing and advertising community in the European advertising space. That is why we are extremely proud that the festival is back even stronger this year. Agencies and clients from as many as 29 countries submitted their works this year. Most of them come from Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, and the best response from new markets comes from Sweden. We look forward to meeting you again at home, in Portorož."

Špela Levičnik Oblak, director of the competition, added: "We are excited to announce that the new Creative Media Excellence section has received as many as 128 submitted works that will compete for awards. However, the One-Channel section still leads with the most applications, with Print, Film and Outdoor advertising being the strongest categories. I believe we are in for a great competition full of outstanding, fresh and exciting ideas. We will greet the winners with thunderous applause at the most prestigious festival in the region and beyond."

The international juries that will decide the winners are led by outstanding and internationally awarded experts from around the world: Pancho Cassis, Partner and Global Creative Director at DAVID USA/Spain, Aaron Starkman, Global Chief Creative Officer at Rethink Canada, Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder and director of the design studio Elephant Design in India, Barbara Evans, leading partner at the media agency Mediaplus Group from Germany and Daniela Iebb, global director of communications for the Heineken® brand from the Netherlands.

The highlight of the Golden Drum will certainly be the awards ceremony, where we will celebrate together the extraordinary creativity and announce the best of the best: the winner competition for Young Drummers, which he supports Slovenian Tourist Organization, winners bronze, silver, gold and of the Golden Drum major awards, award winners Brand of the Year, Best Social Good, Best Local Spirit and new awards that supports Telemachus Slovenia – "Game Changer".

We will also announce the winning agency of the award agency of the year in the Adriatic region, which supports her Zavarovalnica Triglav, award winners for Supporting Independent Agency of the Year Allfred.io, Agency of the year, Production agency of the year, Digital agency of the year, The media agency of the year that it supports BH Telecom, Creative Director of the Year, who supports her Elan and Agency network of the year. During the award ceremony, we will also welcome a new member on stage Galleries of celebrities.

The finalists of the competition will be announced on October 2 at 8 a.m.

Winners will be announced on October 10 at 8pm at an awards ceremony powered by Mastercard.

More about the Golden Drum match: goldendrum.com/competition/competition-about

The competition for Young Drummers received creative solutions from 17 countries

This year's challenge to design a poster or a series of posters entitled "On a date with a masterpiece" was accepted by young creatives from as many as 17 countries.

Contest winner for Young drummers will receive a prize worth EUR 1,000, and the best creative solution will also be announced at the final Golden Drum awards ceremony.

The best creative solution will be chosen by a five-member jury under the leadership Mykola Kovalenko, founder and design director of Mykola Kovalenko Studio in Ukraine and Slovakia, who has received more than 150 awards at international design festivals during his career.

More about the competition for Young Drummers: goldendrum.com/competition/young-drummers-competition

The festival program has been revealed

16 top experts will take the Golden Drum stage. Visitors will be able to socialize in the pleasant atmosphere of the opening party in Portorož and the closing party in Piran.

Unforgettable will open the festival event on October 9 »Warming up Party", supported by Radio Capris, v News Café Bernardin in Portorož.

The very next day, October 10, a series of inspiring speakers will line up on the Golden Drum stage to share their knowledge and experience. Attendees will be able to listen to Amy Rodgers, Head of Content at WARC Creative, who will explore the issue of a crisis in creative efficiency. She will be followed by Barbara Evans, Managing Partner at Mediaplus Group, and Eva Bodecker Thunborg, CEO at Mediaplus Nordic. They will delve into the topic together sustainability in advertising, while Kinga Grzelewska, partner at the MullenLowe agency from Warsaw, will answer the question can advertising save the world. We will also be joined by Elav Horwitz, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Creative Officer at McCann Worldgroup, Emiliano González De Pietri, Chief Creative Officer at McCann Spain, and Catalin Dobre, Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer at McCann Worldgroup Romania and Regional Creative director at McCann in Central and Eastern Europe, who will discuss good and bad sides of artificial intelligence.

Rob Chalmers, Dentsu Creative Network Head of Experience for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will take the plunge brand experiences in a time of exponential change and explained the channels that influence the relationship between consumers and brands. This will be followed by Mastercard's round table with Jerzy Hołub, Marketing Director at Mastercard Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, Andrej Krajner, Director of Communications at NLB Group Slovenia, and Dariusz Maciołek, Managing Director of Marketing and Communications at Bank BNP Paribas from Poland, discussed the competitive advantage that environmental, social and management factors can bring to the company.

Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder and director of the design studio Elephant Design from India, is also coming to Portorož, who will present diversity of design in India, Daniela Iebba, director of communications for the global Heineken brand, and Mihnea Gheorghiu, chief creative officer at Le Pub Global, which will reveal the creative approach of the Heineken brand, a brand that received the prestigious title of Brand of the Year twice at the Golden Drum.

Dániel Kabai, head of creative strategy at Netflix for Europe, Middle East and Africa will present interesting content that helps Netflix subscribers discover new movies and series, and finally Barney Worfolk-Smith, managing director at the technology research agency DAIVID for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will speak about understanding emotions in ads using artificial intelligence.

It will be the highlight of the festival evening awards ceremony supported by Mastercard. We will conclude the festival event on "Golden Star Party", where we will be to the rhythms of HitRadia Center in Caffe Theater Piran celebrated this year's winners.

More information about the program: goldendrum.com/program/monday

Announcement of finalists: October 2 at 8:00 am

Prizegiving powered by Mastercard: October 10 at 8:00 p.m

The Golden Drum Festival will take place this year on October 9 and 10 at the Grand Hotel Bernardin in Portorož.

www.goldendrum.com