Different disciplines require different expertise, and great judging happens when that expertise is combined with independent thinking and an exchange of perspectives.
Less than a month separates us from the 14th edition of SoMo Borac powered by Aleph, taking place on October 23 at Tvornica kulture in Zagreb. While we wait to find out who the winners will be, we’re going behind the scenes of the process that determines who takes home a SoMo trophy.
Every entry is judged by people who know its field
SoMo Borac has two streams, SoMo Media and SoMo Advertising, bringing together work from across digital media, marketing, technology, and communications.
The SoMo Advertising jury is divided into four expert groups: Social & Content, Digital Creative, Product & Tech, and Performance. This allows jurors to focus on a narrower range of categories and ensures that each entry is assessed by people who understand its discipline. SoMo Media has a separate judging system tailored to its own categories.
SoMo AI and SoMoRitanac have their own primary expert juries, while members of other Advertising groups may also participate if they have relevant expertise.
And one rule applies across the board: jurors do not evaluate work submitted by their own agency, company, startup, or group.
What does the jury actually evaluate?
Regardless of category, the jury evaluates each entry against three key criteria:
- Originality and creativity
The idea, the creative insight, and how unique and relevant the solution is to its target audience. - Quality of execution
How well the idea has been brought to life, including content, UX, production, technology, distribution, and executional details. - Results
The concrete results achieved against the defined objectives, supported by figures and data sources.
As a rule, all three criteria carry equal weight. In other words, a great idea alone isn’t enough, just as impressive numbers can’t make up for a weak idea or execution.
First, everyone decides for themselves
In the first round, jurors review and score entries independently, without discussing or aligning their scores beforehand. The online judging system was developed around a decade ago with input from behavioral psychologists, with the aim of making the process more consistent and reducing potential bias. That’s why each juror sees the entries in a random order, while the 1-to-6 scoring scale has no neutral midpoint, encouraging a clearer position on every piece of work.
Discussion, yes. Group decisions, no.
This year, SoMo Advertising is introducing a calibration call after the first round.
Jurors discuss a broader group of potential finalists, compare perspectives, and address any questions or uncertainties. The aim is not to agree on scores as a group: after the discussion, each juror independently decides whether to adjust their own score.
The finalists are then determined based on the first-round results.
So how is the winner chosen?
In the final round, the jury discusses the finalists together. But once the discussion is over, each juror once again submits their final scores independently.
The winners are determined by the final scores — not by group consensus or a show of hands.
From the first independent assessment to the final discussion, the principle remains the same: bring different expert perspectives together while preserving each juror’s independent judgment.
Soon, we’ll find out where those scores lead.
SoMo Borac powered by Aleph takes place on October 23 at Tvornica kulture in Zagreb.
Brigita Krog from Imago, a member of the SoMo Advertising jury, has been following the judging process firsthand for several years.
“Having been on the SoMo Borac jury for several years now, I’m really happy to see how much the digital scene continues to evolve, and how the entries keep getting better and bolder year after year. I especially appreciate that Ružica and the entire organizing team genuinely listen to the jury’s feedback and continuously improve the process, introduce new categories and adapt them to what’s happening in the market”, Brigita points out.
The judging process is just one part of the bigger picture of a digital industry that continues to evolve year after year. One of the topics increasingly raising questions for media, as well as the wider industry, is artificial intelligence.
Mirela Hegediš Horvat, Director of tportal and Digital Services at Hrvatski Telekom and Chairperson of this year’s SoMo Borac Media jury panel, explores exactly that question in her new column for Media Marketing: what does AI mean for media and their relationship with audiences?
The topic is particularly relevant to HUDI (Croatian Association of Digital Publishers), which has been a co-organizer of SoMo Borac for the fourth consecutive year. In her column, Mirela explores how AI is changing the media landscape and why, in a time when there will be more content than ever, audience trust will matter even more.
There’s still time to get in front of the jury
If you have work that deserves a place among the region’s best digital projects, entries for SoMo Borac 2026 are open until September 29 at 11:59 PM.
