Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target

I was blogging yesterday about Valentin Petcu (Romanian blogger also known as Zozo) and about his actions against Romanian companies, brands and people. He is often paid to do this and he has to invent crazy stories. Because of my open criticism regarding his lack of ethics and the heavy use of blackmailing, unverified information and rumours he decided to start a negative campaign against me. He was encouraged because of the NDAs I’ve signed and because of my lack of reaction in the previous scandals (when he and his associates tried to involve me).

I’m writing this post in order to explain a situation and to present the truth as Valentin Petcu is paid to spread rumors and has a secret agenda. Also because I met a a business partner today and he asked me about Real Ad SRL? a Romanian company I knew nothing about. Continue reading ‘Real Ad SRL – the company’

First time I joined the business in INTACT Media Group was on the 1st of May 2008. In July 2008, I already started setting up a new sales house and on the 1st of October INTACT Interactive held its first meeting. In November 2008 we had the first website in the portfolio and the first campaign. In February, together with Ocean Strategy and Gazeta Online, we started to shape a group strategy for the next two years.

Right now, INTACT Interactive is one of the top players in online advertising in Romania (representing over 130 websites), thanks to Magdalena Zander, Gabriel Boaca, Maria Cocris, Sorin Cristea and a great team of Internet enthusiasts working 24/7. On monday, Sorin Danilescu will join the team and will replace me as General Manager of Intact Interactive.

My new position in INTACT Media Group is Senior Advisor concerned with new media. In the next months I’ll focus on new business opportunities while supporting the companies and online products of the media group.

There are new challenges ahead and I’m happy to see more and more people involved and supporting new media cutting edge technologies in the group.

Since I have 300 readers subscribed to my rss feed (today) it’s for the first time I try to figure it out why people read my blog (I always try to stay out of fights and trivial content so my writing is probably very boring).

One possible explanation: the information I provided for my readers on 27th of August appeared in mainstream media on the 22nd of October and started several debates on Romanian blogs after almost 2 months.

They say that “business intelligence” is a term “that dates at least to 1958″ but I don’t think they had decision support systems back then…

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.

Me, the NGO activist:
- to promote democracy and its values;
- to promote e-democracy in Romania and Eastern Europe;
- to support more youth projects;

Me, the entrepreneur:
- to shape a new jobbing website (we had a fusion in 2007) and approach the market from a new angle;
- to invest more know-how in our online brands;
- to have a top lifestyle magazine for students by the end of 2008 (acquisition from 2007);
- to focus and invest more on research;
- to invest in a new start-up covering a very interesting niche (not saying more);
- to finance smart small start-ups initiated by students with NGO/entrepreneurial background;
- to integrate PR/HR/Internet/NGO know-how and shape up all our projects;

Me, the average joe:
- to spend more quality time with my friends/partners/associates and figure out how to rule the world ;
- to clean/set up my mail client with a furious spam filter (my 20+ accounts provide me daily tons of spam and I’m frustrated that sometimes I miss important mails);
- to focus more on personal development (NLP master/reading thoughts/etc ), deadlines, time management, invoices, payments (every cent is important and the pay-per-click system helped me to acknowledge this )
- to make it to all the weddings ;
- to taste 1.000+ wines;
- to begin writing a book.

In 2008 my blog will focus more on the Romanian Internet Advertising Market and only few “extracurricular” important issues will be pointed out at the right time.

I’ll write more about Boom (2008 will be their year), AdEvolution (and their decline), ARBOmedia (and their repositioning), Google (Radu Tudorache still not receiving my e-mails ), Neogen, MPI, Yahoo, HI5 and so on…

Extra cookie – My Top 20 Readers in 2007 (by Google Analytics):
1. Netbridge Investments SRL (they have the biggest online team in Romania);
2. MEDIAFAX (I had some friends over there);
3. SFOS – Soros Open Society Foundation (maybe someone appreciates me for my NGO campaigns);
4. Mobifon S.A. (some friends over there too);
5. Publimedia S.A. (they started to read blogs);
6. Ziua Daily Newspaper (friends);
7. Active Soft SRL (incredible reading pattern – every 2 days );
8. Raiffeisen Bank Romania S.A. (guys, maybe you plan a campaign on our network – ask boom for the rate-card);
9. Google Inc. (I guess you read blogs but you don’t answer e-mails );
10. Renault (because I’m a Ferrari fan ); Continue reading ‘New Year’s resolutions, plans and visitors’

Saturday – Cezar cooked a delicious dinner and I could compare France vs. Italy in two bottles: Chateau Bonnet Reserve, 2003 – Cabernet Sauvignon and a of Excelsus, Castelo Banfi, 2000 – Cabernet Sauvignon;

Sunday morning – Coffee at Starbucks;

Sunday at noon – in the park with the kids & making new friends; insights for new online projects; playing with the new “consumers” and “visitors”

Sunday night – Blog & Roll in Coyote Club. If was quite a party with the bloggers in Bucharest (a fun group) and thanks to Magda I got home quite early. Piticu was on the roll (I know the feeling ), Nihasa promoted Netcamp (btw, here is the new Audi viral clip) and I dicovered Vlad Stan to be awine lover. Congratulations to Corina and Ionut (the karaoke winners).

Monday morning – e-mail, breakfast, phones, haircut, more e-mails, design changes, updates, monitoring, keyword analysis, blogs;

In the evening – invited in a TV Show on Euforia TV, talking about corporate ethical behaviour (after a scandal involving a local bank). After the show, a salad and more e-mails.

Today – rain, morning meetings, exploit fixing & spam fighting, fighting with the office router, e-mails, hot tea, afternoon meetings, phone calls, LinkedIn, traffic, dinner meetings and plans for 2008. The night is still young

My presentation for Strategic Marketing is finally ready and it’s called “Blogs – Competitive through information”.
I wanted to add value for the business men attending the event and I believe this will be for the first time in Romania we’ll have the chance to talk about business blogs as sources of competitive information, raw intelligence or OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) – friends tell me the latest blogging events in Romania shared the same old/sometimes lame themes/ideas.

Guest speakers:
Antonio Eram – Manager, Netopia
Razvan David – Interaction Coordinator, Mediaedge CIA
Orlando Nicoara – General Manager, MediaPro Interactiv
Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target
Madalin Matica – CEO, DotCommerce
Razvan Varabiescu – Managing director, Media Direction

It was for the first time to step in a TAROM aircraft (a big Airbus) but I had a very pleasant experience. The food was fine, the drinks were ok, the chairs were comfortable and the fun thing is that we had an in flight display showing speed/altitude and other cool things. Now, there was a video channel in the plane and I was surprised to see that they broadcasted promotional clips of Romania (not very inspired ones but that’s another story), advertising and some videoclips. I was amazed to se that they promoted Romanian singers like Cleopatra Stratan and Hi-Q and I told to myself that it was a good idea.

If you’re coming to Romania, TAROM can be the right choice but since then, here is the latest HI-Q Video:

PS: check out also Florin’s blog

Here is the photo report from my last visit to Abruzzo, Italy. Working for Vinul.ro is sometimes a profound experience as I have the chance to meet extraordinary people, wines and cultures from all over the world.

The Italian lifestyle has its own charm and I hope you’ll enjoy the photo “collage” below.

Actually, I didn’t care very much about plans and targets but I care about the people. Since I trust the new team working at Boom, this was the only sane thing to do for the online business and I have a good feeling about it.

Of course, having 1%-1,5% of the official online revenues from the Romanian online advertising market is also a good thing for a small independent publisher and so I shall prepare for my exit in 2010 (according to my dreams)

Reaching 3,953,698 people from 200 countries in the first 6 months of 2007.

This is what I do.

As a global citizen, this is my personal battle in making the world a better place.

I love working wireless so that’s why I’m trying to set up hotspots everywhere. At home I have a MSI RG54SE router but the thing started to create problems as the connection used to drop randomly.

A friend suggested me another router while the guys in the service assured me that this problem is common with the MSI routers and that they don’t have a solution if i bring it in.

So, I’ve looked up on the Internet and the problem seemd to be generated by the old firmware software (1.2.8) version and this is how I’ve decided to upgrade to 1.4.1.

Here is what you have to do – on the archives below you have the CC & C WA-2204A Update/Recovery tool v1.4.3 (instructions by mattei).
The CC & C WA-2204A firmware v1.4.1 is included with this package.

VERY IMPORTANT before you start upgrading:
- make sure you still have an active Internet connection (in case you need more info)
- make sure you’ve downloaded both the archives below (A.zip and B.zip)
- make sure the warranty is not violated if you do this (something might go wrong)
- if you do it, it’s your own risk/responsibility – there is no possibility to backup the actual firmware and no way you can reinstall the old one.

Please note: These instructions have not been tested with target router firmware below v1.4.1 or use with flashing firmware below v1.4.1. Test device used was a GigaFast WF719-CAPR – Since I’m writing this post from my living room, means that I’ve also tested it on my MSI RG54SE and it works:

Unzip the “A.zip” archive:
1. Connect your computer via network cable to one of the routers LAN ports.
2. Set your computer IP address within the range of 192.168.1.7 to
192.168.1.253, netmask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.1.254.
3. Disconnect power from the router.
4. Depress and hold the reset button, located on the back of the router.
5. Reconnect power to the router.
6. Maintain the depressed status of the reset button for a minumum of ten seconds.
7. Release the reset button, wait thirty seconds, then proceed.
8. Extract a firmware archive to a folder. The utility searches for:
- linux.bin
- webpages.bin
in the current or configured directory (clicking “Start” without a path shown in the textbox will display a folder selction dialog).
7. Double-click UpdateTool.exe
8. Click start.
9. Select the folder containg the firmware you wish to flash.

Messages:
Connect Fail!!! – the utility cannot contact the device at 192.168.1.254 / 192.168.1.6. (try reset the device)
Update Fail!!! – the utility connected to the device but could not update the firmware.
Update Success!!! – The selected firmware has been flashed.

10. Upon a successful device flash, the router firmware should be updated/flashed with the desired firmware using the web-based administration pages.

Unzip the “B.zip” archive and:
1. Open the router Administration web page at 192.168.1.254.
2. In the router administration menu, go to “Management” -> “Save/Reload Settings”.
3. Click the “Browse” button.
4. Select the desired firmware config<can be a few things here>.bin configuration file.
5. Click the “Upload” button, wait for the “Update successful” message. Click “Ok”.
6. Go to “Management” -> “Update Firmware”.
7. Click the “Browse” button.
8. Select the desired firmware linux<can be a few things here>.bin file.
9. Click the “Upload” button, wait for the “Update successful” message.
10. Wait thirty seconds. Click “Ok”.
11. Click the “browse” button.
12. Select the desired firmware webpages<can be a few things here>.bin web page collection file.
13. Click the “Upload” button, wait for the “Update successful” message.
14. Wait thirty seconds. Click “Ok”.

Download:
A.zip
B.zip

From left to right: Claudiu, Magda, Doru, Corina, Laurentiu and Gabi. They were the guys running the ARBOmedia online business and last night we had the last party.

Doru left ARBOmedia beginning with the 1st of January 2007 and started a new job with Initiative Media. He was the team leader in the online department.

Laurentiu was the second important member to leave the company and join Doru at Initiative Media. His departure is critical – few people know that Laurentiu had a sales target close to 1.000.000 USD. He was very discreet about his departure but the effects will be dramatic.

Claudiu spend yesterday his last day at ARBO. His plans are to return to his business. He was one of the oldest partners in ARBO and had a great online know-how.

Magda was another key person in the online department and she already packed her stuff. Although she had a smaller sales target, she was the one managing the relationships with all the publishers and was the ad server guru. Her departure means that some websites will follow but the most important thing is her new position in the new company (a spectacular evolution).

Corina was the one managing the special projects at ARBO. She will also join Magda in the new sales department leaving ARBO with another problem.

Gabi is the last person to leave the boat, also joining Magda and Corina. He was one of the most experienced sales persons but also very discreet and very business oriented.

The 6 people you see in the picture above are the ARBOmedia online team – they made the network, they managed the ad server, the did the million EUR sales.

ARBO will never be the same again.

The first European study made by the EU commission in order to see if the Romanian wines really are so good – just joking, this was only a personal question I had for myself and I had the chance to find the answer at the ARTmania festival in Sibiu:

The correct answer is: 221 bottles

The bands in the study: My Dying Bride, Tarot, Altar, Celelalte Cuvinte, Haggard, Anathema, Cargo, The Gathering, Luna Amara, Vita de Vie, Iris, After Forever and Within Temptation.

The most wanted wine: Val Duna’s Rose de Roumanie (Merlot, Burgund) – 120 bottles knocked up in the weekend (Val Duna and Carl Reh Winery sponsored the event).

Elvis receives a JCI award for being one of the ten outstanding young men in 1970.

The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) Program serves to formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and exemplify the best attributes of the world’s young people.

By recognizing these young people, JCI encourages them and others to seek excellence and serve others.

Thus, JCI contributes to prepare better leaders, who will create better societies.

I’m back from the short holiday I had in Sibiu last week – I was telling you I was going to do some volunteering work for the ARTmania festival. I’m happy to say that I had the chance to meet new people and see how is like to be a rock star

I spent the weekend in Cisnadioara (near Sibiu) with the guys from The Gathering and My Dying Bride. There are tons of stories to tell beginning with the crazy rides with the BMW racing drivers and ending with the airport lost&found and heavy weight happenings but I promised to keep all these to myself

This weekend I’ll be in Sibiu volunteering for the ARTmania foundation. I’ll be the one taking care of one of the bands so I’ll have to decide depending on my schedule If it’s going to be The Gathering or My Dying Bride.

One thing is for sure – I’ll leave Bucharest with over 200 ValDuna wine bottles so I’m facing a tough weekend.

Rock on!

This is the great thing about the Internet – you can make fun of the superheroes:

My last days were not so much fun: I caught a cold, some Russian hackers attacked one of our servers and I’ve discovered that I don’t have a decent chair in the new headquarters (someone also forgot to set up my desk so I wonder what’s next).
I’m not so pleased anymore with my new laptop (I need to treat myself with a new one), I’m not pleased with the traffic on our websites, I’m not pleased with the numbers I saw last week and finally I’m scared because I can only surf the web on my Firefox and my YM is shy to connect to the server.
Meanwhile, I’m preparing a study about the bloggers and their actions in the last political campaign for my MA class and in a few minutes I’ll be speaking with Bobby on his radio show (hope to make it in time )

Iulian tagged me into a new blogging game. Started by Oana, I have to say what I wish for and I don’t have near… first thing that came into my mind was the “evil twin” thought – but that’s way too cool and quite impossible to have, so I have to say that the only thing missing from my life right now is a blue cow…

I’ll have to pass this to Catalin, Cezar, Sorin and Dragos…

This is the most read political blog in Romania these days (before the presidential referendum) and I’m the one responsible for the project. A few days ago, we had a viral campaign involving Ceausescu (the ex-communist dictator) and since then my life changed a little bit as I received several messages from unknown sources threatening to kill me.

I don’t want to be the first person killed over blogging but I have serious concerns about my personal security.
For the Romanian readers, please read this…

I remember my first NLP courses a few years ago – loads of fun

Happened today in Sofia:

Miruna started her first blog. If you don’t know her yet, she is one of the most talented writers in Romania and also a dear friend.
Just one click away…

A sad news for all the romanian music lovers – Gil Dobrica went to heaven leaving us all his great songs and fine memories.

First time I met him when I was a student and I wanted to have Gil singing at our party. He really rocked the stage and I could see he was a natural talent. Last time we met, I invited him to sing at a festival and he was happy to see the people asking for his songs and having a good time.

Gil, rest in peace!

In Romanian TCB actually stands for “Targul de Cariere Bucuresti” (“Bucharest Career Fair”).
The full story is here…

Some guy (business competitor) woke me up this morning because somebody had “the same address like I do” and because he received some kind of e-mail.

Moments like this make me happy I have all the anonymous proxy server and anonymizing software installed.

When the guy said he’s been tracking me since 2005 he really made my day – I use some fake IPs, but ones that are most popular in Romania so It’s like other thousand users living under the same roof.

Why use an IP changing software/proxy server and anonymizing software?
- In order to stay up-to-date with the targeted campaigns on the local ad servers. For example, ARBOmedia has some campaigns for the agencies.
- to check out if a campaign is targeted in another city or for the users outside Romania (for example, this blog is promoted on all our website but the ad is available only for the non-Romanian ips)
- to test online software
- to hide your real ip
- to make your friends (who track you since 2005) belive that you’re always online

Guys, now that you know that there is anonymizing software maybe is high time to start tapping my phone calls – the chance to find out more about me are quite high as I have 4 phone numbers (only 2 are cdma secure connections).

And BTW, since your company is independent and non-governmental maybe you should know that the act of tracking my phone calls, e-mails, ips, keyboard, bank account, love life, might be (although I’m not sure) illegal.

This special message is for Cristian, Dragos & Ana (they still use their real IP addresses) – You still have my respect and I know It is very hard to have competitors on this market. In case I didn’t mentioned, we try to be the best – please don’t call me anymore at 4:00 a.m. unless you want to take me out for a drink

My father was a racing driver in the national rally championship. This is why I always had a passion for racing. I remember that Ari Vatanen was a childhood hero and I was thrilled to find this movie on YouTube.

This footage showing Ari Vatanen in a 405 T16 climbing Pikes Peak was made by Jean Louis Mourey and it received several awards in the 90s.

Must know:

In June of 2004, Ari Vatanen was elected again as a Member of the European Parliament – from France this time around. Even in the French delegation, Ari Vatanen is keen to defend all of Europe’s and above all the interests of the global human family. “The invisible hand of life has put me on a path that I could not even had imagined while growing up. On June 13th, 2004 I was awarded a second term at the European Parliament. A warm thank to all for the encouragement! Even though the delegation this time is in southern France, I would like to refresh what a famous Finnish politician, Mr Johannes Virolainen said in thick Karelian accent: “The same man, the same speeches!”

A few days ago Ari Vatanen spoke about “The Drive For Clean Energy” at the Royal George Hotel in Perth, Scotland.

In the near future I also see Michael Schumacher involved in politics as a member of the European Parliament. He would probably have a great impact in promoting the renewable energy – this is an idea for Margot Wallstrom.

My laptop works just fine – I just needed a new a new computer for heavy use (mainly Internet and light office) so I decided to buy the most affordable machine on the market. Since a desktop was not the best choice, I thought of a laptop so this is what I got for 469 EUR (very good value for this money):

HP 500 Celeron-M 350
Intel Celeron-M 350, 1,3 Ghz, 14.1 WXGA Display, 256MB DDR RAM, 40GB HDD,DVD/CD-RW, 56K Modem, 4-Cell LiIon Batt – only 2.26 Kg.

I must say I’m quite happy with the design and performance – this computer is great for Internet browsing and docked office work (I’m still amazed to find out that the local governmental institutions still buy 2.000 EUR laptops for Solitaire and FreeCell use).

To find my way back in this life…

For the second time this year, I was invited to speak to the new generation of volunteers.
This time I was talking about event branding, project management and people
Most of the guys in the room were psychology students so we had no troubles interacting and talking about networking and other fun stuff.
I just want to thank Mihai, Mihaela and Bogdan from ASPSE for inviting me and for the positive feedback I received from the members.

Parce que dans la vie, il faut faire quelque chose pour avoir le droit de continuer à vivre…

Oui, c’est pour toi.

This is the new Russian roulette on the blogoshpere. From Cristian Mezei to Dragos Dehelean – Marius Balaci – Sorin Tudor and now it’s my turn…

First of all, you must know that I don’t have secrets but here are some things about me that you probably don’t find online:

1. I ran away from home after high school and I’ve studied philosophy in Iassy for a full year. That year I was hungry, I was alone, I made friends and I was happy for every meal and for every feeling. After finding out my “powers” and proving myself that I can make it own, I quit college, went to Bucharest and started a brand new life.

2. I was the mastermind behind the student strike in 2004.

It was before the elections and we managed to send some signals (It was my first major PR campaign). Our route was also passing the mayor’s office (the actual president Traian Basescu) and I recall him staying on the balcony in order to salute the strikers. At that time, I also created some of the underground political sketches that filled the net.

3. I love to collect miniature cars. Right now, next to my laptop I have a Ferrari F50, a Murcielago, some Porsches a G-Class and a Pontiac. When I was younger, my collection had over 200 miniature cars. My favorites are made by Burago.

4. All the good stuff that happened in my life till now was “caused” by being in the right place and meeting the right people at the right time. No school can teach you the things I had the chance to learn from the people I met in the last 5 years.

5. Close to death – I once saved a man from drowning but everything was so “on the edge”. As I was pulling him, a few meters from the shore, I had doubts that I would make it. Indeed I saw my entire life scrolling in front of my eyes. I was shocked for a week and probably it was the most profound and extreme experience in my life.

I shall pass the course to Dan Petre, Doru Panaitescu, Ionut Bratu, Catalin Paduraru and Zsolt Nagy (maybe he has something to say about the espionage scandal he’s involved in )