The FINANCIAL — Since TV advertising lost USD 5 million in the last three month and there’s an economic crisis happening in the country, companies have been looking for new and cheaper opportunities to advertise their products such as switching to online advertising and charity actions.
Online advertising is gaining popularity in Georgia as it offers far cheaper services.
“Recently Sarke has had a lot of orders for online advertisements. You spent less money and get bigger results. With the sum needed for one minute on television you can get a whole month’s PR campaign on the internet. We are living in a media effective world and those who have realized this won’t be satisfied with just TV advertisements,” Tornike Guruli, the Director of Sarke PR, told The FINANCIAL.
The rate of online ads and flexibility will be increased with wireless internet.
“The big advantage of internet is the online community, while on TV the segment is rather limited. One of the most popular Georgian sites for advertisements is forum.ge. People oriented at the business sector tend to choose gbc.ge. We can manage advertisements on all foreign sites, but as yet we have not seen much demand in this respect,” stated Guruli.
Online sites also offer cover advertisements. At search sites, for example google.com, with a special fee or the help of an IT employee you can manage to put your product in first place, in comparison with the millions of others.
TV companies in Georgia have suffered USD 5 million losses in advertising in the past three months. In July the amount of ad income was USD 7,319,187 and in September – USD 2,635,916. The large loss was caused by the recent Russo-Georgian war, says AGB Nielsen Media Research.
The highest ad income Georgian TV companies got was in May 2008 during the Parliamentary elections. The sum was USD 8,495,540. The number one companies in terms of Gross Rating Point (GRP) were the local mobile operators Magti and Geocell.
According to AGB Nielsen Media Research, the most popular programs on the two main Georgian TV broadcasters: Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV are Courier 9 pm news with ad cost per minute – USD 2,600 and that of the Latin soap opera Wild Cat with ad cost per minute – USD 2,200.
As Guruli told The FINANCIAL, the main “victims” of the war – the banking and real estate sectors took one of the first places on the GRP list. The chain reaction has affected the ad makers.
“The real estate and banking sectors were mostly affected by the war. Inaccessibility to Poti Port was a major problem for construction businesses. Oil companies have also renewed advertising. So, we were able manoeuvre and provide ad services to various sectors,” claimed Guruli.
The shortage of advertisements was replaced by different means with the help of various PR actions.
“After the war what was seen most frequently was indirect advertisements, which were mostly charity actions shown on TV. We saw companies on TV providing aid to refugees. The most interesting was the christening of the refugees,” said Guruli.
TV ad losses were the biggest followed by radio, the internet and print media.
“The least amount of money was spent in TV advertisements, but the result was huge. Our commercial was shown for only a month and in 18 days we sold 42 objects. We offered our customers 10 years expiration loans,” Giorgi Baidarashvili, Director of the Marketing Department, Arci Developer, told The FINANCIAL.
One of the most effective advertisements is considered billboards.
Sarke Holding has its 64 private billboards in almost every street of Tbilisi. The most expensive one is on Avlabari square with the size of 157.56 sq.m and costs GEL 9,453.60.
Advertising includes promo actions, which are divided in to several parts: tasting, take with you, fliers and lottery. If someone doesn’t watch advertisements on TV or won’t trust it he will read it in newspapers, or hear about it in some other places.
“The first lottery was launched by Geocell 8 years ago on TV channel IST. Back then such programs were not so popular and we made them only before the holidays. As the time passed we turned it into a show. The format of the lottery proved to be a success and soon other companies, like Magti, TBC, BOG followed our example. This action is part of our image promotion,” Irma Tskitishvili, PR manager of Geocell, told The FINANCIAL.
“We often appeal to promo actions. Last time our lottery present was two cars from Toyota, RAV 4 and Prado. This raised the demand on car insurance by 120%. In the summer we put up medical camps at the seaside in 8 of the cities of the Black sea. Qualified doctors were there to help people if necessary,” stated Maia Ivchenko, PR manager of insurance company Aldagi BCI.
“The priority of Construction Company Arci is charity. We don’t have any promo actions. Arci offers its private gallery to art people for free. We also managed to launch a special course at Georgian Polytechnic University (GPU), faculty of architecture and our representative from Georgian House delivers special course there,” Baidarashvili reports.
In Georgia, as well as abroad sport remains popular for sponsors.
“A big number of advertisements have recently come on TV. We sponsored different directions mostly: sport and football, our top management presented national Olympic champions with flats. We also sponsor our national championship and national team,” Nino Oniani, Director of the Marketing Department of Axis developer, stated.
A new tendency of making advertisements in private companies was started recently. Banks are placing their ads on ATMs and get glass facades for their offices in order to make their inside billboards visible from outside.
“Banks fully use their office space for self-advertisements, but I don’t think that this approach will work on the masses as the Bank of Georgia customer won’t withdraw money from a TBC Bank’s ATM. Thus such kind of advertising is mostly targeted at providing additional promotion within one’s own customers,” noted the Director of Sarke PR.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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