Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target

Few people know the history of the Internet in Romania but yesterday I had the chance to notice the sudden death of local legend – I think it deserves a post.

1996 – The first Romanian newspaper published on the Internet marks the launch of online journalism in Romania. ZIUA was the first general newspaper to walk on the digital world in a time when “e-mail” was considered as hot as “twitter”

2006 – Top 10 online player – During the years, the brand was challenged by many scandals and urban stories, ex-KGB spooks, secret documents and secret agents, legal and financial matters. The company was bought by local media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu but was considered the “ugly duck” for Realitatea-Catavencu group and was never fully integrated in the group.

2008 – SATI: Affinity for old people – I remember a short episode in 2008 when I saw the first SATI demographics: Ziua.net had a strong affinity for old people and a heavy component of foreign audience: Ziua was also the first romanian newspaper with an online version for romanians living in and USA and Canada.

2009 – November – The Record – 2009 presidential elections in Romania also set a new traffic record for ZIUA: 1.488.159 unique visitors.

2009 – December: The announcement – Sorin Ovidiu Vantu announced his future plans in an interview: his investments will shift towards Internet and the print titles will be either sold or closed down. The news didn’t came as a surprise for people working at ZIUA at that time. The website still had 1.340.620 uv in December 2009.

2010 – January: The end of ZIUA - Facing critial financial issues, the newspaper was closed down. Ziua.ro displayed an empty homepage and Ziua.net was suspended. I tried to find out if the website was available for sale – at that time the website counted 1.046.633 unique visitors. I was not the only one interested in the faith of the website, I found out that Sorin Rosca Stanescu, the founder of the newspaper, was also interested in aquiring the domain but was politely declined.

2010 – February – 326.783 unique visitors – 1.000.000+ was a constant number for Ziua.ro in 2009: direct hits, heavy users and a very stable traffic. Last month the website lost this 1.000.000 people.

If you know how hard or how expensive it is to bring 1000 people to a website imagine how is like to lose 1 million visitors in a market like Romania. I understand the reasons for closing down the print edition but I have no idea what went wrong with the online edition nor how the strategists in the group missed the potential and the market share of the website… after all, it was the first online newspaper in Romania.

I had a twit  this morning about Simina’s article based on local media budgets in 2009 published in Wall-Street. According to Alfa Cont numbers,  Romanian top 20 advertisiers spent almost, 2005,3 mil EUR (rate card) in 2009 compared to 2174,2 mil EUR (rate card) in 2008.

The panic effect: similar bugdets, 90% discounts

The difference: 168,8 mil EUR (rate card), a very small percent if compared to the est. 2,1 bln EUR (rc). The panic effect we saw in 2009 weakened media vehicles as the overall spending budget remained the same while the prices went down, discounts and rebates went up  - buying media with up to 90% discounts is now something ordinary on the local media market.

The climate was very good for the clients in 2009, 13 of top 20 spenders increased their budgets and in some cases we saw over + 50% growth (Reckitt Benckiser, Henkel and Ferrero).

Top 20 Advertisers in Romania – 2009 vs 2008 comparison:

Source: Alfa Cont – Romanian Advertising Market

Top10 | Agency Name/ Turnover 2008 (eur) / Turnover 2007 (eur)

1. •B.V. McCann Erickson / 75,7 mil / 57,8 mil
2. •Mercury360 / 18,9 mil / 17,3 mil
3. •Graffiti BBDO / 17,9 mil / 23,3 mil
4. •Grey Worldwide Romania / 17,7 mil / 27,2 mil
5. •Leo Burnett&Target / 16,3 mil / 15 mil
6. •Odyssey Communications / 14 mil / 13 mil
7. •Publicis / 15,3 mil / 12,1 mil
8. •Tempo Advertising / 6,6 mil / 14,2 mil
9. •Ogilvy&Mather / 7,1 mil / 3,2 mil
10. •Lowe&Partners / 5,1 mil / 4,6 mi

Continue reading ‘Romanian Media & Advertising in 2008 – Financial results’

SATI: Romanian Online Advertising – Market Overview

Here are 14 points underlining the main players on this market in 2009. Since some people might consider the list below “a top”, I must say that it is only a list and it is based on our INTERNAL RESEARCH. For example, the large public found in May that Boom was split in two (Trade Ads/Netbridge Investments). In fact, they were working under the new structure for quite some time.

We also tried to point out the cases where clients are given access to a 3rd party adserver/report because transparency is a very important thing on a very young  market. But the main idea of this post is to point out the fragmentation of the market in 2009 (I wrote this because some of my colleagues in the industry are very competitive and often like to start endless debates):

Continue reading ‘SATI: Romanian Online Advertising Market – 2009 Fragmentation Map’

Mihai Trandafir, Managing Director Universal McCann, has a very interesting interview in Wall-Street.ro pointing out 2008 results and the challenges to face in 2009:

• 35% growth in 2008;
• 70 mil. eur turnover last year;
• -15%/60 mil. estimate in 2009;
• atypical spending behavior in Q1;
• it’s going to be a tough year for small media agencies;
• plans to unite Universal McCann and Initiative in Magna (part of Interpublic) – est. 100 mil EUR turnover;

Full interview here…

According to official BRAT/SATI figures:

week>16.03-23.03>

1. RadioZU – 123.085 unique clients
2. Radio21 – 78.346 unique clients
3. EuropaFM – 77.272 unique clients

week>9.03-15.03>

1. RadioZU – 130.272 unique clients
2. Radio21 – 76.399 unique clients
3. EuropaFM – 91.957 unique clients

Open up the champagne, and bring the goat to the partey!

Pentru a asculta Radio ZU LIVE sau farsele lui Buzdugan, accesati www radiozu.ro !

According to a poll of 2,800 people in six countries, 76 percent have viewed online video, and 45 percent are regular viewers. Among people who have watched online video, 15 percent say that as a result they watch “slightly less” TV, while another 36 percent said they watch “significantly less” TV, the IBM report stated.

“The industry must find appealing ways to monetize new content sources or risk a similar fate as that of the music industry where value shifted away from core players,” said the study’s co-author, Saul Berman, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

SATI becomes the only official entity to measure the Internet traffic and Internet audience in Romania as of today. INTACT Media Grup, MediaPRO, Realitatea-Catavencu, Ringier Romania and Internet Corp are the first media groups planning to quit using trafic.ro and migrate towards SATI.

This is a natural thing for the Romanian Internet Industry and SATI is just a healthy step forward. At INTACT, we plan to start this transition today and to finish by the middle of 2009 – the press release below (Romanian): Continue reading ‘Press release regarding Internet measurement in Romania’

Tonight I’ve heard something interesting: Serban Ciusca is changing the partner at ARBOevents (founded two years ago with ARBOmedia Germany as one of the shareholders). The new changes at ARBOmedia made Serban Ciusca to reconsider a new partner and it seems that Kristiano Tabasco is interested in this market.

On the other hand, ARBOinteractive is growing fine with its new leadership and Calin Rotarus is doing what he knows best. Octavian Matei is the new star over there and his creative insights started to shape the new department. Ad King brings a new touch to ARBO and they have Octavian to thank.

According to the latest “unofficial” report, It seems that ARBOmedia Romania and all its branches will be closed down and only ARBOinteractive will remain up and running.

Market Share (Bucharest):

Continue reading ‘RomanticFM overtaking ProFM and EuropaFM’

It’s not a secret for anyone (anymore ) that a few years ago I was one of the leaders of the Romanian Student’s movement. I organized student strikes, I created all kind of student propaganda and made the first viral campaigns in Romania (maybe all of these will be one day available on my blog).

In 2004, I was one of the guys working on the “digital guerrilla” and planning the viral seeding of hot topics on the web. The Internet and the mobile technology made the difference in 2004 and indeed, I was “in the center of the storm”. All my theories and online plans turned out to score very good results but I decided to focus on other things.

Since then, I only supported independent NGO campaigns although I still have friends in many Romanian political parties (once student leaders, this year candidates for the parliament).

The announcement I have to make: I’m not doing political campaigns anymore, nor do I offer consultancy regarding digital technologies to politicians (this also means: no copywriting, no slogans, no special effects and no special projects on the Internet). My presence at Politica 2.0 (the event) was a coincidence and the fact that I used to master “digital guerilla” skills has nothing to do with my current position (job).

PS: as a professional, I always delivered all the points in the brief and I always will.

People went zuu this morning before the first show on Radio ZU (we started to receive comments on the blog since 04:30 am). At 07:49 we had a large crowd showing up – it seems that 15.000 people were too many for our server but now we’re back online Continue reading ‘15.000 spike this morning on RadioZU.ro’

Radio ZU – 89 FM, coming zuun

You can also download the high quality mp3 soundtrack from here…

Radio ZU - Mihai Morar & Daniel Buzdugan

Pentru a asculta Radio ZU LIVE sau farsele lui Buzdugan, accesati www radiozu.ro !

Initiative (media agency, part of Lowe) launched last week their Media Fact Book for 2008. This week I already had two meetings with foreign online media investors and I see that people are interested about the Romanian advertising market and spending in 2008. Continue reading ‘Media Fact Book 2008 – advertising spending in Romania’

Mihai Morar and Daniel Buzdugan will launch a new radio station this month and I’m one of the guys involved in the project.

The thing is that we plan to launch the radio station in record time and for the first time, the whole development is stuck because of the naming! Mihai Morar wants to see Energy FM while Daniel Buzdugan is convinced that Oxygen FM can be the best name . Continue reading ‘Energy FM vs. Oxygen FM – new radio station’

Wiki: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. He is also known for his quotations. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty. Continue reading ‘Mark Twain quotes on Blogging, Advertising and New Media’

Our approach was discreet and we didn’t want to make a big fuzz over this but since Valentin Petcu (romanian blogger) managed to get a copy of my e-mail to third parties and published it on his blog (thank you for promoting this issue and backing us in the fight against piracy), here are some info on the matter.

Our lawyers started to notify the following websites in order to stop uploading TV shows or broadcast online streams from Antena1, Antena2, Antena3, Antena International, EuforiaTv and GspTV:
Continue reading ‘Copyright infringement – official notifications on the way (the first black list)’

The famous European project MyVideo.de (ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) moves to Romania before YouTube and launches MyVideo.ro – of course they have a plan and my sources say they’re surfing with a local media player (SBS Broadcasting Group) backing them (we’ll have to see how they perform).

This means Trilulilu.ro and 220.ro have another competitor but as I check out their website, I already noticed that they started on the left foot.
Continue reading ‘MyVideo.ro’

I decided to post a few movies for the weekend – sometimes we all like to imagine the future and Dorin Boerescu just reminded me that Shift happens (presentation made from the original movie by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod):
Continue reading ‘Shift happens – globalisation and media’

UEFA has prepared a very powerful infrastructure for broadcasting the Euro2008 championship over the Internet (I see matches available in 2 stream qualities: 450kbps and 2000kbps). UEFA charges 1.99 EUR for a single football game (Matchpack – full match, replay & highlights) and 19,99 EUR for the full package (you can check it out here). I had some issues in my country with this service because they use an automatic redirect and I get another page.
Continue reading ‘Euro2008: live free streaming vs. pay-per-view’

We’re planning the first national Internship fair in Romania and this week we’re launching the first teasers on TV (mix on Antena1, Antena2, Antena3 and EuforiaTV, prime time coverage). Although we’re covering a niche, there are plenty of things to explore from this campaign and I’m really enthusiastic about it.
Continue reading ‘StudentCV.ro – new TV mix’

Thoughts before easter:
- I managed to figure it out some planning tips for promoting a website on TV; we have a new campaign coming up in a few days;
- research insight: there are people watching/listening the TV news while surfing (in prime time );
- wines are finally taking of in Romania – huge effort just to place the word “wine” in media these days; Continue reading ‘Easter – campaigns, TV, product placement, sales’

I had a full day yesterday meeting interesting people all over the town
The intervention on Radio Romania was about the perfect day at work and how to get a raise from your boss (I was surprised again to find out how many people still listen to this radio station).
Continue reading ‘Yesterday: TVR, Radio Romania, HotNews party’

For the first time in Romania, the online edition of a website has a printed extension
Vinul.ro started in 2005 and as we speak is the no.1 wine magazine in Romania covering news and events from the industry and providing weekly wine reviews for its readers. I must say that for Cezar, this is a dream come true and the project is quite a challenge.
Continue reading ‘Vinul.ro – printed edition’

I was invited this evening to speak about JOBfest in a TV show on EuforiaTV and at some time I saw a spot promoting a contest on their website. 

Thought to myself: It’s a great thing that local televisions started to promote websites (I remembered  my last visit to Poland: I could easily notice websites mixed in every TV spot/show. Many things to explore from their evolution/migration ;) ).

MEDIA: I’m reading blog posts about BRAT, Gfk and football.

I try to see the numbers one year from now.

IAA: Felix Tataru is the new vice president at IAA Worldwide. This is also a great news for our Romanian IAA YP chapter since we now have the support of the vice president – Dan Petre has daily posts from the IAA Summit in Washington.

CAREERS: JOBfest begins this Friday (interactive jobs from navidoo, CTM, Magnetique). Maybe you’ll find the perfect career opportunity

ME: thinking, working and building around the clock (we experiment a new media mix with TV, BTL and online but that’s another story).

I try so see the numbers 10 years from now.

As we speak the first movies (news coverages) from today’s “anti-NATO protests” (10 people with 5 banners) are uploaded on YouTube (very good angle in the footage – they look at least 30  ). Well, sad news, the movies don’t respect the copyright laws and although I see there are users eager to plant them, by tomorrow morning the uploads will be probably deleted.

Viral seeding is very trendy these days and I guess people are preparing another viral campaign. One interesting thing to notice: uploads/patterns from Romania/Ukraine.

The NATO Summit in Bucharest turned everybody on and we had the chance to see many interesting campaigns coming to life. Monitoring viral campaigns is not a thing I do only daily basis but I didn’t expected that the Internet would be so exploited.

This week had the most viral campaigns (very interesting to follow the media mix):

- 1 anti-NATO campaign (BTL component, poor viral planning, very good reach);

- 1 anti-governmental subversive campaign (social, NATO related) – very good reach (planned and executed in Romania, good media mix, very good results) – probably the best viral campaign this year;

- 1 anti-corporate campaign (TELECOM, NATO related) – good viral seeding (poor overall planning);

- 1 anti-corporate campaign (FMCG, pure commercial) – good viral seeding (local planning, very good media mix);

- 2 anti-U.S. campaigns (poor planning, poor execution, BTL + viral, 1 with a very good insight);

And the week is not over yet

After Saptamana Financiara, here is the new online version of Financiarul.com

Having a .com domain (.ro is already registered to another entity) can cause confusion and related traffic issues – here is a link showing +250,5% traffic raise for financiarul.ro – interesting case study

BRAT 10 YEARS – Anniversary and party this evening at 19.00, Grand BallRoom, JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel.
This is the second event reuniting the media industry this week (IAA opened the first champagne two days ago ) and this time I do hope to meet some of the SATI members.

Special thanks to Arina – I know she’s been working afterhours (met her at least 3 times after 19:30 in the IAA House) for this event and I do hope everything will run smoothly.

See you tonight!

LATER EDIT: Silviu Ispas (ARBOmedia) is the new BRAT president (this is his third time).

This evening I was invited to speak in a radio show (Radio Romania) about the educational rights Romanians enjoy in foreign territories. We discussed about e-learning, the use of Internet and common educational matters.
We had a phone call from a teacher in Moldova who told us that he is teaching Romanian language and the “Moldovan language” propaganda was a nonsense. This made me mention the open letter I sent to Google regarding their language policy (still no answer from Radu Tudorache – Google Country Consultant for Romania).
I also had the chance to talk about Transnistria (Europe’s black hole) and about the serious issues Romanians are facing out there (for example, the border control is very strict and they don’t allow books or educational materials for the schools, not to mention the beatings and the threatenings both teachers and students face on daily basis).

Our movie promoting the vote will be broadcasted today on B1TV and National TV.

My first idea was to film someone from behind and say it’s Elodia (and she wants to vote this Sunday) – prime time coverage on all stations and 24h live analysis on OTV… maybe next time.