Raluca Bocai (Mediascope): We are placing at the heart of creation authentic insights that connect deeply human emotions with brand experiences that surprise and inspire

2023 was a very dynamic and full year, until its end. But what should we desire from this year’s reality? BR sat down with Raluca Bocai, managing partner Mediascope, in another series of interviews and talked about the Romanian marcomm industry, its evolution and what to be expected from 2024, at the same time not forgetting to touch the trends and agency’s side as well.

By Romanita Oprea

How was 2023 from a business point of view?

It was a difficult, but productive year, a year of happily passed tests. A year in which two major things happened for us: we started the production and R&D – ESG Production division and we are fully operational, and we’ve put the basis of the exclusive partnership with Videri that offers us full access to know-how and technology. Therefore, we can be relevant and make the difference in the market for our partners.

What were the most important changes & novelties in the agency in 2023?

2023 was a year in which the maturity and experience accumulated in almost 20 years of activity gave us the courage to open the production division ESG Production, a premium service, which we make available to clients by executing creative ideas exactly as in the proposals sent. Also, last year we started a brand & business perception analysis process. The main objective of the Brand Audit was to structure the company at an organizational level, taking as a model the top agencies of the international advertising industry. In addition, we wanted to identify those complementary services that can be added to the company’s portfolio in order to be easily folded on the agency’s strengths.

What do you offer differently than the competition?

The mix and deliverables we offer our partners, the quality and high level of professionalism that are in our DNA.

What about the pitches you entered?

We approached the clients and implicitly the final consumer with the objective of developing ideas that offer experiences. Many EXPERIENTIAL campaigns were developed with the help of which we were able to trigger emotions, memories, unique and personal experiences for each consumer.

What do you wish for 2024?

We proposed ourselves that 2024 would be the best year in Mediascope’s history so far, the year in which not only we celebrate 20 years, but one in which we show how much we’ve grown and developed and expended both our portfolio and knowledge.

Some of the very important accomplishments we see in 2024 are the consolidation of the production division as a separate business, with its own clients, and an expansion of the existing portfolio, as well as the consolidation of the multimedia and experiential department.

This year represents also the closing of an important project we started last year – the brand audit and repositioning of our agency, created together with the business consultant Cristiana Belodan. At this moment, Mediascope enjoys a new internal structure, new products and services and valuable people attracted by Mediascope’s vision of increasing its footprint in the local and regional market.

The conclusions and recommendations from the Brand Audit led to a natural direction of expanding the competencies and services offered to Business Partners. A stage that occurs naturally, as a natural phase of development, in the context of strengthening the team with new valuable additions for the human and professional capital of Mediascope.

Therefore, Mediascope’s positioning as a Multimedia Experiential Marketing Agency is based on the creative DNA of the agency, a tech-innovation driven culture and a team with a fresh vision, with a focus on the development of new brand experiential touchpoints to amplify the interaction with brands, in all environments where they meet their consumers.

The agency’s new strategic vision continues the current direction of Brand Management 360 by placing at the heart of creation authentic insights that connect deeply human emotions with brand experiences that surprise and inspire on another level.

At the same time we would like to mention that we are very proud to be handling the promotion as the exclusive distributor for Central and Eastern Europe for Videri – the thinnest, lightest and smartest digital canvas in the world that Mediascope offers to clients in order to digitize and automate brand visibility and campaigns of shoppers.

What do you consider to be the latest trends that are arriving in the marcomm industry and why?

The trends below are part of our already daily SoW; and it means a shift of the company towards the current trends and needs of the market:

Integrated thinking and the omnichannel and cross-channel approach to marketing and trade marketing actions
Digitization and automation
Digital amplification through branded multimedia content
The shift towards campaigns that transmit experience and take place atypically versus scratch/peel-off card or the classic ways

And last, but not least, a direction around which we built our production division – Sustainability and Easy Recycling of communication materials.

Where do you believe to be our industry’s main problems and how can they be changed?

The industry has been in stagnation for many years, I would even say decline. We can spot a generalized lack of innovation and the desire to do special things as they happen once in a while.

The industry needs a reinvention and courage from the customers, as everything starts from there. We trust that this will happen in the next period because the trend in the market is towards experience not execution, towards immediate and sincere interaction with brands. Customers are more rigorous in choosing the promotions they participate in and in the decision to join to one brand or another.

In the past, the market surprised through marketing and trade marketing actions, now we observe a linearity and this must be changed.

How much of an important role are still having the consultancy and the strategy in 2024?

The year 2024 remains a challenging one, with everything that is announced related to inflation and social dynamics through the influence of technology, which in turn influences the final consumer we are targeting through the campaigns we propose. The fact that there is uncertainty regarding the economic development in the market determined us to strategically analyse every move regarding the clients, the team, the company. I could even say that we anticipated this moment, which is why we invested time and resources since last year in the Brand Audit, which had as its objective the structure of the company at the organizational level, but also the identification of complementary services that were added to the company’s portfolio.

What do you believe to be the main DONTs in 2024 and why?

The indicators that we followed at the company level showed us that we are on schedule with the fulfillment of our objectives for the first part of 2024, but that does not mean that it will be an easy year. Economic growth is very low, inflation affects all fields of activity. However, we are optimistic and invest heavily in business development, without compromising on the quality of services and deliverables to the client.

What drives your daily passion for advertising?

I am motivated by the new briefs that come with the most atypical and innovative requests. The teams are motivated by the partnerships in which there is the drive and the desire to innovate. We live in an era of technology, AI and automatization and trade marketing needs a reinvention, one in which we believe very much and we are willing to invest time and resources in, as well as in the finding of the most interesting ones.