$5.50 Worth of Advertising On Everybody
September 16 marked the beginning of the Annual Advertising Exhibition in Kyiv. Compared to last year, this year’s exhibition is on a greater scale, with 26% more area occupied. The number of companies participating in the exhibition increased to 45 from last year’s 35, along with 37 souvenir producers vs. 27 a year ago. Advertising fashion has seen some interesting changes as well. According to Tetiana Novak, manager of a Moscow-based outdoor advertising company, currently glittering and unsophisticated neon animation is in the vogue and not glowing display letters. Meanwhile, the fact that what we see in the streets looks very much like Western advertisements is the result of the unscrupulousness of ad agencies, since achieving a good result requires going through the sequence from the client to the manager, designer, and design engineer.
The exhibition program is divided thematically: the first day is dedicated to the mass media, the second to branding and public relations, and the third to sponsorship. The organizers decided to embrace the most current issues in this sphere and planned master classes on how to achieve a successful result in connecting the agency and client, along with discussions and even specialized talks addressing the issues such as: A Bright Russian Future for the Ukrainian Business Press, Pitfalls of Sponsorship, Getting Down to the Fundamentals: 22 Ambiguous Questions About Marketing. Organizers claim there has been nothing of the kind in the CIS.
Incidentally, Ukraine’s advertising market is growing at a stable annual rate of 30%. According to the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition, while last year $124 million was spent on advertising in the print media, in the seven months of 2003 alone this figure came to $73 million. Forecasts suggest that $115 million will have been spent on televised ads by January and another $55 million on outdoor advertising. However, per capita spending on advertising in Ukraine is a mere $5.50, while in Russia and the Baltic states this figure is ten times higher. Mass advertising accounts for the lion’s share of all such expenditures, while targeted advertisements are too few. Understandably, a major share of so- called advertising money is spent on television. However, there is a visible trend of advertisers returning to the print media.
Moreover, the exhibition organizers claim there is another trend, that is, advertising volume in the regions is growing, with Kyiv advertisers trying to tap regional markets. Incidentally, on September 14 marking the Day of the Advertiser and Market Analyst, President Kuchma inked the law, On Advertising Activity. The Day approached Mykhailo Lazebnyk, director of the Kyiv International Advertising Festival, for comment on the new law.
“It’s a compromise law and a progressive one. Different forces participated in its drafting: consumers, advertisers, lawyers, and ad agencies. However, a few clauses turned out not to be feasible. I have in mind the requirement that all advertising products be in Ukrainian, which includes the mandatory duplication of logotypes. Would you tell me how this can be done with the letter J, say, in the acronym JVC? Simultaneously, there is much that is positive in the new law. For example, it has lifted the unjustified limitations that were imposed under the 1996 law. It’s also good for the consumer, as it bans advertising tobacco and alcohol products.”
