Leading television channels Inter and Studio 1+1 are giving local manufacturers a boost by providing cut-price ad slots under a project to support local advertisers.
The project, run by ad corporation Premier SV Ukraine, first started in May of 1997, but was forced to shut down in October the same year when new laws on income tax and VAT made businesses slash ad budgets.
In the project's first incarnation, it attracted 20 local companies, providing them with assistance in making and placing their own ads.
The project got going again in March of 1999, and has already attracted around 30 local advertisers.
'The project makes life easier for both national manufacturers and TV channels,' said Arkady Vuhovsky, general manager of Premier SV Ukraine.
The overall cost of an advertising package bought through the project is $6,250, which buys 30 slots on Inter and 10 slots on Studio 1+1. Besides that, the project can fund the production of a low-budget ad (worth around $500) for a company, if it doesn't already have its own ads.
The project has helped companies with tight ad budgets gain national exposure through television. Moreover, Vuhovsky said he has noticed while working on creating ads that local firms' marketing and advertising strategies are changing for the better.
'Now national manufacturers are beginning to show interest in building a brand instead of just promoting a product,' he said.
Ad industry news
Ukraine's ad industry saw the birth of a new agency in January – Image – the product of a merger between Image GGK Ukraine and Meridian Advertising.
Image GGK's former managing director Alexander Pavlovsky has been appointed to head the new agency.
Among Image's most recent new clients is Tenncco Automative, the leading worldwide manufacturer of car spare parts. Image will handle advertising for two of their new client's brands – Monroe shock absorbers and Walker exhaust systems.
Image will also handle the account of EuroBilla, the Austrian-based supermarket chain. The agency is currently working on a grand opening campaign for EuroBilla's first outlet in Ukraine, a store in Kyiv's Kharkivsky district.
But a long-term client of Image GGK – McDonald's Ukraine – won't be working with the new agency. McDonald's has instead switched its advertising account to DDB Ukraine. ***
The 13th annual Epica awards ceremony for European creative advertising work was held in Dublin on Jan. 21, but unfortunately no Ukrainian ad agencies picked up prizes this year.
Some 786 companies from 37 countries together submitted 5,752 entries to the Epica competition. Six ad agencies from Ukraine together made 22 entries, but none were judged worthy to be winners or finalists.
A total of 60 Epica prize winners have been named. TBWA was the most successful European ad agency network in this year's competition, picking up eight prizes from four of its offices around Europe. The 1999 Epica d'Or top prize was awarded to HLA Ltd. London for its ad campaign for Britain's Independent national daily broadsheet. The Tony Stone Images Prize went to another agency from London – Bartle Bogle Hegarty – for promotion for Levi's Sta-Prest range.
For more info, visit the Web site http://www.epica-awards.com
CLARIFICATION
With reference to an item appearing in the Ad Lib column in last week's newspaper (Vol. 6, Issue 3, page 5b): The Kyiv office of Leo Burnett handles two Philip Morris brands – Marlboro and L&M – in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. The agency also promotes the Vatra brand in Ukraine. The Kyiv representative office of Young&Rubicam advertises Bond Street and Chesterfield in Ukraine. Other locally produced brands of Philip Morris as well as Bond Street and Chesterfield are supported in Belarus, Moldova and Armenia by Young&Rubicam Kyiv, while Young&Rubicam Moscow advertises these brands in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Olena Nikolayenko can be reached at [email protected]
