Four IdejaX awards for Zagreb for campaigns that connect culture, tourism and public safety
The Zagreb Tourist Board and the City of Zagreb won a total of four IdejaX awards at Days of Communication 2026, with which two city promotional campaigns received professional recognition for creativity, clarity of message and execution. According to the announcement by the Zagreb Tourist Board, the awarded projects were Zagrebački MUV, that is, Zagreb Museum Weekend, and the information campaign Do Not Let Yourself Be Taken for a Ride for the Price of a Taxi Ride. Days of Communication were held from 7 to 10 May in Rovinj, and the organizers present them as Croatia’s largest festival of communication and creativity. In a competition that includes market, communication and socially relevant campaigns, the Zagreb projects stood out as examples of institutional communication that strives to be useful, recognizable and visually powerful at the same time. For Zagreb, this is important beyond the scope of the award itself, because the awarded campaigns refer to two areas that strongly shape the experience of the city: access to culture and trust in services used by citizens and visitors.
Zagrebački MUV awarded gold and silver
The Zagrebački MUV project, carried out in cooperation with the studio Superstudio, won gold in the Best Branding & Rebranding category and silver in the Tourism, Culture and Leisure category, according to the Zagreb Tourist Board. It is the communication and visual identity of a new cultural event that was held for the first time in September 2025. According to data from the City of Zagreb, the first Zagreb Museum Weekend took place from 4 to 7 September 2025 and brought together 11 city museums in a joint programme. The programme was conceived as a multi-day invitation to visit museum spaces, exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, panels and cultural walks, and the official website of the event stated that admission to the events was free. From the very beginning, MUV was thus positioned as a project that does not communicate only individual exhibitions, but attempts to connect museums, city spaces and the public into a single cultural route.
According to the announcement by the City of Zagreb, the project was created at the initiative of the City Office for Culture and Civil Society, with the cooperation of the Zagreb Tourist Board, which developed the visual identity and carried out the campaign. The official information about the programme emphasized that the event was part of the broader commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the unification of Gradec and Kaptol, which further connected the contemporary cultural offer with the historical identity of the city. Such a framework explains why the campaign had a broader task than a classic event announcement: it needed to present museums as accessible city points, but also convey the message that Zagreb can be discovered through a network of cultural institutions. The award in the branding category therefore refers to the project’s ability to make a new event recognizable, while the recognition in the tourism and culture category confirms its importance for promoting the city as a destination of content, not merely a location.
The taxi transport campaign received two bronzes
The second awarded campaign, Do Not Let Yourself Be Taken for a Ride for the Price of a Taxi Ride, was carried out in cooperation with the studio Šanavala and won bronze in the Best Outdoor – OOH category and bronze in the Miscellaneous category, the Zagreb Tourist Board announced. The campaign was launched at the initiative of the Zagreb Tourist Board and was carried out in cooperation with the City Office for Local Self-Government, Transport, Municipal Services, Civil Protection and Safety. Its aim, according to the same source, is to inform citizens and visitors about the more transparent and safer use of taxi services in Zagreb. In practice, it is communication that deals with a very concrete problem: an understandable ride price, recognizing irregularities and reducing the risk of unpleasant experiences when using taxis. Precisely for this reason, this campaign has a different tone from the cultural MUV, but it meets it at the same point, in the effort for public communication to be practical and easy to remember.
The context of the campaign is additionally important because taxi transport in larger tourist cities is often among the first services that visitors encounter after arrival. In its instructions, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure states that a taxi operator may provide the service via a taximeter or an electronic application, but with clear obligations to inform users. If the service is provided via a taximeter, the taximeter must be switched on, and the price list must be displayed in a visible place in the vehicle, the ministry states. If transport is provided via an application, the passenger must be able to see in advance the maximum price and the planned travel route. In such a regulatory framework, an information campaign does not replace supervision or regulations, but it can help users pay attention to the price, route and method of payment before entering the vehicle.
The highest-ranked institutional advertiser
Thanks to the four recognitions, the Zagreb Tourist Board took fifth place in the overall ranking of awarded advertisers and became the highest-ranked institutional advertiser of this year’s IdejaX competition, according to the announcements by the Zagreb Tourist Board and the Croatian National Tourist Board. This information is significant because it shows that institutional campaigns can compete equally with projects by commercial brands, especially when they have a clear strategy and a well-developed creative execution. In the same competition, according to reports by specialized media, the title of advertiser of the year was won by Hrvatski Telekom, while Bruketa and Žinić and Grey was named agency of the year, which further illustrates the breadth of the competition. In this context, fifth place for the Zagreb Tourist Board does not mean only the number of awards won, but also the positioning of a public institution among the most visible participants in the communication industry in Croatia. For city tourism, this is confirmation that destination communication is increasingly being evaluated by the same standards as market campaigns: by idea, execution, relevance and the ability to reach the audience.
The director of the Zagreb Tourist Board, Martina Bienenfeld, stated that the recognitions are confirmation of the importance of cooperation between institutions and creative partners, as well as of a bold and innovative approach to promoting Zagreb. According to the Zagreb Tourist Board announcement, Bienenfeld emphasized that Days of Communication bring together the best from the field of the creative industry and communications and thanked the City of Zagreb, Superstudio and Šanavala for their cooperation. Her statement points to a model in which tourism promotion is based not only on advertising attractions, but also on recognizing concrete city topics that can be communicated creatively and usefully. In that model, MUV opens museums and connects the cultural offer, while the taxi transport campaign attempts to reduce the information gap between service users and carriers. Both campaigns therefore show how city promotion can expand beyond classic tourist motifs, toward issues of experience quality and public trust.
IdejaX as a measure of creative communication
IdejaX is a national creativity competition held as part of Days of Communication, and the official festival website describes it as a competition focused on agency-led works and communication solutions with a pronounced creative factor. According to the organizers, the competition brings together projects in several groups of categories, including Best on Market, Best in Channel, Best Branding & Rebranding and Best of Positive Change. The specialized portal Mediakit reported that the winners of IdejaX 2026 were announced on 8 May on the Days of Communication stage in Rovinj and that this year there were more than 220 submitted projects. This shows that the awards are granted in strong competition, with not only aesthetic solutions being evaluated, but also strategic approach, relevance of the message and quality of execution. In the case of Zagreb, the recognitions came for two campaigns that arose from public needs, but were shaped in the language of contemporary communication.
Days of Communication have already profiled themselves as a place where the works of agencies, brands, institutions and organizations from the Croatian communication industry are compared. According to Netokracija’s report, this year’s edition was marked by five major award ceremonies: IdejaX, BalCannes, Effie, Mixx and Young Lions. Such a festival structure makes it possible to observe different aspects of communication together, from the creative idea and regional visibility to effectiveness, digital campaigns and the work of young professionals. For public institutions, participation in such an environment means exposure to stricter professional judgment, but also the possibility to show that messages of public interest do not have to be dry or administrative. This is precisely one of the reasons why the Zagreb awards are important: they indicate a shift toward communication that translates public topics into clear, memorable and usable messages.
Culture and safety as part of the city’s image
Zagrebački MUV and the taxi transport campaign at first glance belong to different areas, but together they speak about how the image of a city is built. The cultural event is focused on content, accessibility of museums and encouraging movement through city spaces, while the information campaign about taxis emphasizes safety, transparency and protection of service users. Both topics directly affect the everyday experience of the city, whether it concerns residents who want more accessible cultural programmes or visitors who rely on publicly available information. In its announcement on the conclusion of the first MUV, the City of Zagreb stated that the event brought together 11 city museums and offered a rich free programme, which confirms that the project was not only a communication exercise, but an actual programme step forward. On the other hand, the taxi transport campaign relies on regulations and the need for users to understand their rights before and during the ride.
For destination marketing, such a combination carries special weight. A city is not promoted only through photographs of landmarks and a list of events, but also through the way it solves practical questions for visitors. When a public campaign warns about the need to check the taxi ride price, it does not hide the problem, but tries to make it visible and understandable. When a cultural campaign connects museums into a joint weekend, it does not present culture as a separate institutional offer, but as an experience of moving through the city. The IdejaX awards are therefore recognition for creative teams, but also confirmation that public communication can be used as a tool for better orientation, greater accessibility and strengthening trust in the city’s offer.
Cooperation between institutions and creative studios
Both awarded projects were created through cooperation between public institutions and creative partners. Superstudio, according to the Zagreb Tourist Board announcement, worked on the Zagrebački MUV project, while Šanavala was the creative partner of the campaign Do Not Let Yourself Be Taken for a Ride for the Price of a Taxi Ride. This form of cooperation is becoming increasingly important because institutions more and more often have to communicate complex information in an environment in which the audience expects a fast, clear and visually recognizable message. In a cultural project, this means shaping an identity that can connect multiple museums and programme lines, while in a safety-information campaign it means devising a message that warns without exaggeration and explains without administrative language. It is precisely the balance between public interest and creative execution that makes such campaigns relevant beyond professional circles.
According to available information, the awarded projects are not isolated promotional actions, but part of a broader effort to present Zagreb as a city of culture, content and a safer stay. MUV was announced as a new cultural event that connects Zagreb’s museum institutions into a joint programme, while the taxi transport campaign is aimed at behaviour in real situations of using the service. In both cases, communication was given the task of being a bridge between institutions and the public. Therefore, the four IdejaX awards do not represent only professional success, but also a signal that investment in clear, useful and creatively executed public communication can directly reflect on the experience of the city. After the award ceremony in Rovinj, Zagreb received confirmation in this segment that institutional messages too can assert themselves among the most notable communication projects of the year.
Sources:
- Zagreb Tourist Board / Infozagreb – official announcement on the four IdejaX awards, categories, campaigns and the statement by Martina Bienenfeld (link)
- Croatian National Tourist Board – Zagreb Tourist Board announcement on the awards, advertiser ranking and campaign goals (link)
- City of Zagreb – information on the first Zagreb Museum Weekend, the programme and the number of included city museums (link)
- Official website of Zagreb Museum Weekend – description of the event, dates and programme framework (link)
- Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure – instructions on the use of taximeters and applications in taxi transport of passengers (link)
- Days of Communication – official description of the IdejaX competition and competition categories (link)
- Mediakit – report on the winners of IdejaX 2026, the number of submitted projects and the award ceremony in Rovinj (link)
- Netokracija – overview of awards at Days of Communication 2026 and the context of festival award ceremonies (link)