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9th BIG BERRY Mastermind 2018: Alja Pahor

It was a sunny afternoon at our BIG BERRY Kolpa river resort and we were proud to host our 9th Mastermind of the season - Alja Pahor. She’s in charge of social media for the Olympic Committee of Slovenia and is active in the public relations department. Alja is known for her positive mood that brightens up everyone from the Slovenia Olympic team. 

‘’I’m actually a lawyer, that means you have to talk a lot. I do, but that’s not enough’’

9th BIG BERRY Mastermind of the season: Alja Pahor

9th BIG BERRY Mastermind of the season: Alja Pahor2

The story of our Mastermind and BIG BERRY began at the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang. Alja met Ana and Mariliza from our BB Team through the Slovenia House project. Another interesting fact is that our creative social media expert is actually a lawyer. Her biggest passion is sports, as she was a figure skater for 15 years. Her biggest dream was to experience the Olympic Games and she did - twice! Not as a participant, but as the person responsible for all social media activities during the Games. That’s what Alja’s Mastermind topic was about - How to monetize social media. In other words, how to improve the brand value and awareness of the Slovenia Olympic Team through communication and their key stakeholders: athletes, sponsors and fans.

‘’Since I was little, my dream was to experience the Olympic Games’’

Similar to BIG BERRY, they also link their projects and use numerous social media networks, specifically Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and their own app. Their Twitter page is the most popular sports organization in Slovenia, while Instagram is used most by young athletes. In order to engage the fans and followers, Alja and her team came up with new strategies. In addition to using advantages of Facebook Live, one member was added to the Olympic family: a beloved mascot Foksi! Team Slovenia’s messenger chatbot they used during PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games was named after him and during a short period of time he became a brand himself. Besides his website, he has a respectable amount of more than 1.300 fans on Facebook.

9th BIG BERRY Mastermind of the season: Alja Pahor3

9th BIG BERRY Mastermind of the season: Alja Pahor4

‘’I’m usually a very sociable person, but at work I’m always on my phone’’

The second part of Alja’s talk was about sponsors and future strategies involving marketing and PR for the benefits of the Slovenian Olympic Committee, their sponsors and partners. Some of these will involve promotion of sponsors through social media, which would be a new strategy. It isn’t really a surprise that sponsors would prefer to be involved in one of the most powerful communication channels of the modern era.

After the presentation, Alja was happy to do a short interview before heading to a precious 2-day vacation. You can check the interview and the full Mastermind talk below!