The FINANCIAL — Georgian producers are saying that the local advertising market is experiencing the worst times so far in its short history. The lack of creativity in Georgian commercials is causing discontent amongst both advertisers and customers. “The situation is critical,” say experts.
“We have lots of examples of companies spending huge amounts of money on commercials but being unable to see the expected results, even so, it is better to have a bad, yet qualitative ad than none at all,” Niko Nergadze, lecturer of Advertisements and Marketing of Caucasus University and the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) says.
“Why would we make the ads if they didn’t show us good results,” Sopho Balavadze, Corporate Communications and PR Manager of Bank of Georgia, one of the leading Georgian banks, says.
Georgian TV commercial history has many examples proving how one can get maximum benefits from a low budget commercial. On the other hand there is a lack of professional teams to create the ads. “On the western market, there is a professional for every job. In Georgia, we have no professionals to write slogans for example,” Ebralidze, Producer, author of awarded TV commercials of Magti GSM, told The FINANCIAL.
One of the main obstacles for creative commercials is the intervention of advertisers in the working processes. “It is becoming clear that advertisers are not interested in something highly cultural, surrealistic or intellectual. They discuss ads merely as products. Meanwhile the actual directors look at their commercials as works of art,” says Producer Sandro Vakhtangov.
Vakhtangov notes that commercials have their own set of strict rules. “Producers really need freedom when working. You have to show the product which you are advertising in the way in which the customer is asking you to. In the Georgian reality, we have some examples of commercials that will stay in our minds for a long time. At the festival of Cannes only creative products are awarded.”
“The Georgian economical system is based on feedback. Companies are investing money and expect to get it back as soon as possible. An advertisement of a fragrance by Christian Dior, which Hollywood actress Sharlize Theron acts in, has been in use for five years already. The management of the company has not replaced this commercial with another because it is still exceeding their expectations. In our case ads are like chewing gum, for one time use. You chew them and then spit them out,” Vakhtangov says.
“Ad producers are not paying attention to details,” Nergadze says. “A good commercial is not only a well planned script. We have the example of commercials of Coca-Cola to prove this. As by just reading the scripts of these commercials you would not be impressed, however after seeing the actual ad of it, you thoroughly are. We can also cite unfortunate examples of good scripts which were not implemented well at all.”
Nergadze notes that recently ad producers have been paying more attention to the quality of the graphics. “Besides that there is the text and the skill of the actors in the ad, the quality of which is generally low. All these things give us the end result of a qualitative commercial. In commercials, ideas are not the main thing. What’s more important is their fulfilment. You can create an interesting script for a commercial yet its realization might not be what you hoped for.”
Vakhtangov mentions that the largest problem on the Georgian market is that our products are not exported abroad. “Nowadays it is not a problem to invite a Hollywood actor, even Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise and order a foreign ad producing company to shoot a commercial with them in it. Imagine a Georgian company spending such a colossal sum on a TV commercial, what would the result be? Most Georgian products are aimed at the local market accordingly; so they do not consider it worth shooting a commercial on such a grandiose scale.”
“Unfortunately we do not have such brands which would approve commercials of such large scale expenditure as in the case of Turkish Airlines. Making an ad of such a large scale is first of all connected with finances. The Turks paid USD 1.5 million to Kevin Costner. This sum is perhaps larger than the total budget of most companies advertising on the local market today. Georgian air companies are not so large and are not on the same level as Turkish Airlines. Turkey is a large country and therefore has a much larger market,” Ebralidze declares.
“The participation of famous people in ads increases customer trust towards those products. We can name the example of Michael Jordan in this case, who was the face of Nike. Jordan is an internationally renowned sportsman and therefore the general population trusts that the fact that he wouldn’t be backing a bad label,” Nergadze declares.
“There was a campaign of Golden Cup in the year 1994 which attracted great amounts of money from people. In their advertising campaign the company invited the Georgian actor Zurab Kipshidze to act in it. After a short while, the team then disappeared without returning customers’ money and so everyone started asking for their money back from Zurab Kipshidze,” Vakhtangov says.
Vakhtangov says that in Georgia we do not have a wide cast of real stars. “The star should be ‘untouchable’ and in our case, this is less likely. Personally, I think that it is better to see a commercial of high quality with no popular faces than the other way round.”
“In Georgia there are not many popular faces. Therefore we see the same faces advertising companies of strictly different directions. Also frequently advertiser like a certain person and so ask him to become the face of the company,” Nergadze says.
“Inviting a star to act in a company’s ad is possible in Georgia too. We just don’t see the need for there to be a foreign star acting in a Georgian commercial. Turkish Airlines is a Turkish company but it advertises worldwide,” Balavadze, Bank of Georgia, notes.
Two years ago the Bank listed its shares in the form of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange.
“US or European style advertisements do not work in Georgia. When we advertise Georgian products, for our customers there are quite often relatable Georgian elements in them. The average Georgian can’t relate to the European man with his ties and luxury cars. The people in the ads should be similar to our people. We frequently see cases of advertisers asking for American types of commercials for their products,” Ebralidze declares.
Ebralidze says that he has twice managed to organize an international festival of Caucasian ads in Georgia. “The first thing that participants liked in Georgian ads was their individual style. Foreigners have mentioned that there exists an individual face of Georgian ads and that this aspect should definitely not be lost. We should not ask why a creative Georgian ad does not exist rather we should ask why Georgian ads do exist.”
“We do not have schools for specialization in the direction of producing ads because this direction only started developing during the last ten years. As for the current programmes in existence in our universities, the students are unfortunately being educated by less than competent lecturers,” Vakhtangov says.
Ebralidze says that in Georgia shooting a TV commercial costs from USD 10 to 50,000.
Ebralidze says that the situation is worse in the printed advertising market. “The reason for this is that people working in this field are not well qualified. In printed ads, there are no original ideas, or if there are then the designer misrepresents them. It is hard to say what the reason for this is. The fact is that the situation is critical.”
“Creating printed versions of ads is easier and so most producers use and copy things from the internet. It is worth mentioning that currently we are in the process of development. In Georgia commercials have existed for 10 years and in the West for about 300-400 years,” Vakhtangov says.
“You can easily avoid TV commercials just by switching to another channel, but as for billboards, they are everywhere in the streets and you cannot ignore them,” Ebralidze notes.
“Recording radio ads is more complex. Auditing plays a main role in the creation of radio ads and the low quality of auditing is visible. Actually, the structure of the Georgian language is complicated and less acceptable for commercial texts. We need lots of work on texts but are lazy about doing it,” Nergadze says.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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