Bogdan Gavrila – Core Target

I had a post on may 26th regarding the updates on the CIA website. Since then, they managed to update their page (last update is 2007-06-15) but the funny thing is that Nicolae VACAROIU is still the president of Romania in their database.

Of course, with all the US election campaign coming up and the terrorist threat rising every day, we all know that they have many issues to take care of but still…

The ideal candidate:

* Excellent knowledge of the Czech language;
* Computer skills: Internet, e-mail, Microsoft Word;
* Responsible, dependable, ability to work under stress, able to cope well with very tight deadlines;
* Organized person, with logical thinking;
* Ability to work productively in a team;
* Effective communication skills and the ability to interact professionally with a diverse group of clients and staff;
* Self-confidence and a proactive attitude, excellent communication skills, active listening abilities
* Possess and demonstrate excellent verbal and written communication skills, and be able to communicate essential concepts to people of all levels.
* Ability to plan effectively and work under pressure;
* Results oriented, dynamic and self-motivated person.

If you have it, send me an e-mail with your resume.

After Microsoft Corp. announced this week that it has agreed to acquire AdECN, Inc. (an advertising exchange platform company based near Santa Barbara, Calif), there was another press release that made more sense and made me think: they announced the creation of the Internet Services Research Center (ISRC). This center is “dedicated to accelerating innovations in search and ad technologies and delivering them more rapidly to advertisers and customers” in other words, beating Google.

Lenovo:

VISA:

OMEGA:

VW:

China Airlines:

NINTENDO:

The full list of sponsors and partners is available here…

Since John Griffiths was present at our last IAA YP meeting, I’m happy to say that it seems that he did a great job at the IAA school. The IAA website published yesterday an interesting interview describing his view on the local advertising market and media. He stressed the fact that the Romanian TV became overcrowded with advertising while the Internet is still unexplored and promoted some very healty ideas to the local planners.

I think what John Griffiths did with the account planners came like a gift from heaven for ARBOmedia, Boom or AdEvolution (although they don’t know it yet) and I’m more than sure we’ll see some positive results in the near future

Coca-Cola has plans to enter the Russian kvass market (traditional local beverage that has become one of the fastest-growing soft drinks sectors in the country):

The Russian edition of Forbes magazine has published its list of the most popular and richest celebrities of Russia, actors, musicians, models and sportsmen:

First, the classical “Kalinka”:

Now, click here to check out the Red Russian Army Choir & Leningrad Cowboys singing Delilah…

We all know that the USA have the greatest country brand and one of the most appealing USP. But this is a a thing that the common american can’t understand unless he is abroad where he has to face the real power of the brand:

What’s your name? Where are you from? Did you vote for Bush?

That’s how one American student studying in Germany describes the start of a typical conversation with a German student. With anti-U.S. sentiment at an all-time high in Germany (as you might be able to tell from the picture at left), many American college students complain that they’ve become unofficial ambassadors for the United States, forced to justify Washington’s every policy move.

The full story here…

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

Cobileanski is by far the most popular director in Moldova and his movies are genuine and fun. His latest movie is now published on his new blog.

Go ahead, spread the news!

Via Sorin Tudor, I found out that Alessandra Stoicescu has her own blog.

Romanian Neogen rebranded their websites – that’s something interesting to think about.

Dan Petre seems to have discovered the coolest way to travel in Bucharest (I’m also a subway fan – and the first one to introduce the stairway branding/advertising to Euromedia ).

Zoso changed his writing style and subjects after the accident he had later this year. He was so unlucky so that his face/name/workplace became public in prime-time on public television.

On Liviu’s blog I found this disturbing thought (Romanian recruiting website has a service allowing a recruiter to do public review of a person so that the candidate can be marked badly when there are recruiting issues – this tool is great for the agencies but quite bad for the users )

I’m sad to say that ARBOmedia won’t represent our websites anymore beginning with the 1st of August 2007. I also know that I’m not the only publisher leaving the network but I’m more than sure that ARBOmedia will still host great teambuildings and the new online sales team will adjust very quickly to their new goals. We end our partnership in great terms and I promise I’ll still write about the company.

Hope you’ll enjoy this part performed by Drew Tretick – “A Time to Say Goodbye”:

Obama Girl – “I Got a Crush…On Obama”

Hot 4 Hill – “I Got a Crush… On a girl named Hill”

2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul in discusion with Google executive Elliot Schrage as part of the company’s Candidates@Google series:

NO END IN SIGHT – the movie
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality:

Since the local ARBOmedia is poor on comments on the local market, I’ll have to bring you some facts about Romania from their quarterly report.

IMPORTANT BEFORE READING: the quarterly report is made for the shareholders and the figures presented below are not AUDITED!

Liquidity 7,3 million euros – the liquidity raised by 0,5 million eur because there is a scheduled payment of the ramaining purchase price for aquiring the publishing companies in Romania.

NOTE: after listing the company on the stock market, there are plans to acquire other publishers in Romania.

Sales revenues of the subsidiaries – although the sales Czech Republic lowered by almost 4 million eur, Romania had a good pace and the Romanian publishers contributed to the increase of the gross margin relation. They say they expect the positive trend to continue on the second quarter also.

Outlook and order situation in the second quarter – the Romanian ARBOvision is considered to exceed the sales figures of the same period last year. For all the subsidiaries, they say that they have secured 18.000.000 eur bookings for the second quarter.

In Romania, they also expect disproportionately high growth within the local publishers. Marketing the tematic TV stations will also develop significantly above the previous years 1st quarter because the aquisition of Hallmark as a client.
100.000 eur/month – this is how much they invested beginning with the 1st of January 2007 in consolidating the Romanian publishing companies acquired last year. The sales and distribution costs are comprised primarily of the salaries, travel costs and costs in relation to advertising and marketing activities

Online revenues

Now, you all probably wonder about the online figures since Calin is so discreet and busy recruiting and no one at ARBO wants to tell their figures so far… let’s see:

1.218.000 eur in the first quarter of 2006 and quite a rise in 2007 as they reached 1.862.000 eur in this part of the world  (Eastern Europe) .

I also have to mention the Sales Cost: 1.373.000 eur – this means that the gross profit was 489.000 eur… enough money to give a nice raise to the 5 people they lost two weeks ago…

Media Fact Book, Initiative Romania:

485.400.000 eur advertising market in 2007: + 34% ^

9.400.000 eur, for Internet & Cinema + 52% ^

The big pie – TV=325.000.000 eur but only + 45% ^

What should we do about the Cinema?

It was yesterday and I’m happy to say that I have the chance to be one of the founders. The IAA Young Professional Chapter is another sign that the IAA Romania is one of the most active IAA in Europe.

There are many plans for the Young Professionals and I hope that some of my projects will be the things the industry is looking for. On the other hand, I’m sure that the IAA it’s great for networking and meeting some of the most intelligent people in this part of the world.

Also to write about the first YP IAA meeting, Dan Petre, Razvan and Mihnea…

Via Orlando, here is an interesting article about the 4 people BOOM hired from ARBO. The article names Magdalena Zander, Corina Ciocan and Gabriel Boaca and has no details about the 4th person.
Since Gabriel Boaca will start his job in two weeks, my guess is that he is the 4th person arriving at Boom.
The three people I saw these days over there were Magda, Corina and… Claudiu Gamulescu*

* tip for AdPlayers

The last few days in Abruzzo were very inspiring and really changed my mind about Italy. I’ll get back to you soon in a few days on this matter.

Now I’m back in Bucharest and trying to optimize the cash flow and increase the income from our online projects. It took me one year to get to know the people in the online advertising, to learn how the business is done in Romania and what are the plans for the future.

The Polish market can be an example for Romania and probably in 2010 the big spenders will have 20-25 mil online. My guess is that 80% of the money will be spent on 20% of the websites so the main goal as a publisher is to be on the short list.