Analysis. 20 years of marcomm brings maturity and skills on local market

Newsroom 08/03/2018 | 17:30

The Romanian advertising industry has ridden the capitalist wave and serves as a revealing guide to how the economy and culture have evolved over the years. While in 1998, the market consisted of just a few firms, today Bucharest alone boasts dozens of marcomm agencies, big and small. BR casts its eye back over two decades of the advertising business.

 

By Romanita Oprea

From big, international groups, such as Publicis, McCann Worldwide, Mullen Lowe Profero, Graffiti BBDO, TBWA\ Friends, Ogilvy, Grey, DDB, FCB, and Saatchi & Saatchi, to successful independent outfits such as The Group, GMP Group, Jazz Communication, g7, Propaganda Creative Services, Headvertising, Next Advertising, and Mercury360, today’s Romania is home to a varied and competitive advertising scene.

This is still a very young advertising industry, on which the earliest agencies began to launch in 1991, and soon gave up their independent status by joining big international networks. In 1991 Bogdan Enoiu launched Clip Advertising, an agency that joined McCann Group in 1996 and become McCann Erickson Romania, one of the most awarded Romanian agencies at a local and international level. Target Advertising was launched in 1994 by siblings Ioana and Stefan Iordache and joined the Leo Burnett network in 1997. For a long time the two agencies were the standard bearers for creativity and strategy in Romania and were competing for the title of Romania’s best agency. Commentators say the “battle” between them helped raise the bar for all the other agencies on the market, which were soon seeking to win local and international awards and, at the same time, learned the importance of making sure every success was turned into a PR moment.

1991 was also the year when Graffiti BBDO entered the Romanian market, and it affiliated to BBDO a year later. Tempo Advertising was one of the biggest and most creative Romanian advertising agencies back in the day, launched in 1996 by Dragos Grigoriu. Many of today’s big advertising talents passed through the doors and rooms of Graffiti BBDO and Tempo Advertising. In 1992 came the launch of Grey Bucharest, while in 1993 Bates Centrate Saatchi & Saatchi, run by Radu Florescu, saw the light of the day. A year later, Veronica Savanciuc and Paul Radu formed the basis of Plus Advertising, which later joined the Lintas network, and in 1994 Teddy Dumitrescu and Bogdan Santea launched Focus Advertising, which in 1998 affiliated itself to the Publicis network.

That was when it all began for the advertising industry in Romania. It was a time of great enthusiasm, when campaigns were created more or less based on gut and feeling rather than knowledge, when creatives were working long days and nights to complete and launch their campaigns. It was a time that those involved remember with great pleasure, according to Petre Barbu’s (writer and famous journalist specialized in media & advertising topics, nowadays contributor for Forbes Romania) book, My First Year in Advertising. It was also a time of pure advertising.

Other services such as PR, specialized services of media planning and buying, and online properly started to develop slightly later. The independent PR agencies started their journey on the Romanian market after 1994. One of the first was Image PR, run by Alex Paius and Crenguta Rosu, which was born in 1995. Premium Communication, led by Sorana and Andrei Savu, was established in 2001, as a PR consultancy focusing on multinational companies. 100 percent Romanian, Premium Communication started as a team of consultants with solid professional and academic backgrounds in PR, journalism, advertising and marketing, just like Image PR. Both entrepreneurial agencies, they have remained the same over years, not becoming affiliated to big PR groups.

Slowly, agencies started to offer more services. The communication market first grew and diversified, and companies began to create specialized BTL, online, mobile, and media planning and buying departments, which afterwards became agencies of their own. Creatives with experience at big multinational agencies saw the opportunity and demand on the market and launched their own successful agencies (Next Advertising, CAP, Headvertising, 23 Communications, Friends, etc). Romania became a favorite of the biggest CEE advertising festival, Golden Drum, as well as smaller regional festivals. The Romanian industry held three major festivals of its own: Ad’Or (for creativity), EFFIE (awarding efficiency in communication) and AdPrint (the only European print advertising festival).

Then, in 2009-2010, came the economic crisis, which shook the industry to its core and changed the landscape. Investments dropped significantly and agencies’ representatives saw themselves confronted with a new reality: everything had to be better, faster and cheaper – way cheaper. It all became about efficiency. And while at the beginning clients were somewhat lacking in creativity and reluctant to take risks, the situation started to change with the rise of the internet and new technologies. The power and influence of the new technologies and social media brought with it a new face for advertising, at global level as well.

Meanwhile, in terms of creativity Romania gained ground fast as several ROM campaigns created by McCann Bucharest won some of the most prestigious trophies at Cannes Lions and a series of other major international festivals. The local industry is influenced by the latest trends shaping the industry: mobile power, social media rise, omni-channel communication, AI and Virtual Reality, and chatbots.

The country is part of the big industry. Local campaigns are imported elsewhere in the region, Romanian agencies are working on regional accounts and taking part and winning international pitches. There is no longer a difference between Romania and any other big advertising market, except the budgets and number of countries the commercials and campaigns reach.

Moreover, the Romanian marcomm industry is not defined only by Bucharest. Cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi are now putting their imprint on it. While some years ago the trend was for international creatives to come to Romania and become creative directors, setting the trend at multinational agencies, these days Romanians are making themselves known in key positions worldwide, with the likes of Adrian Botan, Razvan Capanescu, Gabriela Lungu, Ema Prisca, Gabriel Botarel, Mihnea Gheorghiu, Ghica Popa, and Catalin Dobre being cases in point.

Romania is also adjusting to the trend of group consolidations, as smaller and creative agencies join bigger, international networks, with only a few still plowing their own furrow on the independent side. At the same time, a growing number of freelancers and independent consultants now prefer to choose the projects they work on and bring their extensive experience when campaigns resonate with their values and business goals.

 

All in all, insiders agree that the Romanian marcomm industry is starting to mature and define itself on the international creative map.

BR Magazine | Latest Issue

Download PDF: Business Review Magazine March (II) 2024 Issue

The March (II) 2024 issue of Business Review Magazine is now available in digital format, featuring the main cover story titled “BAT DBS Romania Hub: A Vibrant New Office For An Employee-Centric
Newsroom | 27/03/2024 | 17:32
Advertisement Advertisement
Close ×

We use cookies for keeping our website reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our website is used.

Accept & continue