Cougar pounces in the advertising jungle

Gina Turliu has two major objectives for Cougar on her agenda: to double the company’s turnover to EUR 1 million this year and enter on the ATL market in the long term. Meanwhile, she intends to enrich the agency’s portfolio of customers.

Anda Sebesi

Gina Turliu, client service director of Cougar, decided to become an entrepreneur back in 2006 when she and her partners chose to set up an advertising agency. “Cougar was the result of a big challenge: to create a 100 percent Romanian advertising agency, meant to compete efficiently and successfully with the large merchandising and BTL agencies,” says Turliu. And it seems it was an attainable goal as Cougar has managed to create a wide portfolio of large customers such as Reckitt Benckiser (with Vanish, Calgon, Air Wick, Harpic, Cillit, Nurofen), Carrefour, Fonica Vodafone, Anchor Grup, Milli, Napolact, Dots, BCR, Cocor Department Store, Midocar, Granddis (with the Stolichnaya brand), Collier’s and Agrocosm.

The beginning of Cougar’s story was a typical one for any start-up: some professionals with extensive experience in a specific field decided to take their first step in the entrepreneurial world. “We started with a small team of specialists that I personally knew very well because we had worked together on various projects. In a few words I can say that since the beginning we have benefitted from a team guided by several strong internal values: trust, professionalism and huge enthusiasm,” remembers the entrepreneur. And experience proved that these could be the main ingredients of a successful business.

The main idea of Cougar was to create a competitive local agency that could hold its own against the well-known firms on the local market. “In order to do so, we focused on large clients because we were sure that our core of professionals could meet the needs of a brief from that type of customer,” says Turliu. But things didn’t stop here: in time the company diversified its portfolio of services and managed to put together a team of several professionals with significant expertise in the field.

The idea to set up the business came as a natural step for the founders of the company, as they were veterans in the game. “All members of the management team had worked in advertising for many years, since the beginning of this industry on the local market,” says Turliu. Asked to identify the main challenge her business has faced, Turliu replies that each brief is a new challenge for the Cougar team. “I think that this is why we decided to start a business in this field of activity: you need to break some limits and barriers,” says the businesswoman. Plus the advertising industry is well known for its dynamism, and so it is very important for players on this market to be very flexible and pay attention to every detail.

If she started another company she wouldn’t change anything. Why? Because her business has endured many difficult moments during its almost five years of existence and she has learned many things from them. “Each problem we faced or each success we enjoyed made their contribution to a more experienced, mature and organized team. That’s why I wouldn’t change anything,” she says.

Turliu and her partners went into business back in 2006 on a very crowded market, with each player fighting for a significant market share at that time. But this didn’t frighten her as she persevered in developing a successful business in the industry. Plus, she looked on the bright side of the conditions: she wanted to prove that her company could impose itself on its market. “But things have changed a little bit since the current economic downturn, with many agencies giving up offering specialized services in this field. The remaining agencies have become more powerful,” adds the young entrepreneur.

Asked what differentiates her company from the crowd, Turliu says Cougar has the benefit of an experimental team of specialists. “It is the most precious advantage and it is indeed a great achievement for us. Besides, we are one of the few agencies that achieve the same level of efficiency or sometimes even more with a smaller budget, compared with agencies affiliated to a network,” adds the client service director.

Turliu says that the current economic crisis has not affected the company’s financial performance. “Fortunately, both in 2009 and 2010 our agency managed to post an increase in turnover and attract new customers to our portfolio despite the decline in the market,” she notes. But Cougar did feel some negative effects, especially in the first half of 2009, when all its customers became more reluctant and cautious about developing communication campaigns. “We got through this difficult period thanks to our flexibility and rapid response to our customers. We were open to negotiating the price of our services, keeping a real ratio between the service and its financial cost,” says Turliu.

As for future plans, Turliu says she intends to attract new customers for her agency, especially on the merchandising side, on the short term. “Our long-term objective is to enter and develop on the ATL market segment,” says the businesswoman.

anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

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