May 22nd, 2009
Not long ago I visited an exhibition of Picasso and then I headed to another exhibition of two creative comrades. I was still trying to absorb the white and black impressions of the Picasso brand, when an elderly woman with slightly bored expression on her face popped up in front of me. She started with: “Hello, I am from the X sociological agency, we’re making a survey about TV commercials…”. Professionally deformed that I am, I responded quickly “No, thank you”, but the lady went on almost as fast as I did “…if you spare about two hours of your time for group discussions, you will get a Milka chocolate as a reward”.
more
December 3rd, 2008
Is it necessary to invest two-three years in patenting something in order to ask yourself “Copyright or Copyleft?” Everyone who has seen both sides of the coin can easily answer to that question.
more
December 2nd, 2008
Every project may flow wonderfully if things happen on friendly terms. Through the years I have come round to the opinion that it is great madness to play in two teams – Assignor and Assignee. In most cases this hinders work and development. The moment this pseudo wall falls, the picture obtains a new look. Three years ago I got a call from friends of mine with whom we have worked together on more than one project, and said: “We are nominated for a big movie festival, and we don’t have a website of the movie”. Next morning we were sitting with a cup of coffee and cigarette, ready for the pre-premiere review.
more
December 1st, 2008
The salty snacks market is one of those which I have studied with pleasure and for which I have realized more than one project. In the middle of 2003, after having worked in an advertising agency, I crossed to the other side as a Brand Manager in a marketing department, and at the end of 2004 I was on the third side as a Client-Service Director. Actually, this triple point of view taught me many subtleties, part of which I’m going to share in these lines. A previous article reminded me of that matter related to the demolition of a ME2 brand platform and the building of a new brand over the same foundations. Every process of demolishing and building takes time, and this particular project took about three years.
In 2002 a company with traditions in production of potato and corn chips – Intersnack, popular with its world-known brand Chio, purchased the production and the local brand Chipi. Owning about 30% from the salty snacks market and over 80% of the chips segment is more than a serious market achievement. At first look it seems wonderful, but considering 2 brands of similar targeting – men and women between 20 and 30 years of age, having a dynamic lifestyle with consumer habits “on the go”, it is almost impossible to achieve a bigger market share. There is always a sufficient quantity of solutions! A main move in the repositioning of the Chipi Chips brand was below the line activity with revolutionary for its time approach in the FMCG market, namely – instant monetary wins (money in-packs). With this “bomb” we achieved 75% sale growth as compared to the previous year and substantial growth in distribution. Along with this move we started working on a new package design, new logo and new target audience, with which later we entered in focus groups. We wanted to attract the family audience – 30 – 40 years old and those who love Bulgarian cuisine and traditions. In Bulgaria, the top of mind association for natural clean potatoes is restricted to roadside merchants who stalk on the mountain roads in the autumn.
more
October 23rd, 2008
Since a game has been played by advertising agency and marketing department, it is much easier to find balance between creativity and sales. One of the advertising business old men has said:”Nobody’s watching TV to see your ad”. This thought was much stronger when television was at its dawn, not its decline. At the time when torrent revolution and online videos hadn’t started to overflow the entertainment business and I had been playing for several years behind the scenes of an advertising agency and marketing department, I took part in a project related to a brand which had been known in the market for years and for which I had worked on both sides, and in the given case I was exactly in the middle. The client had signed a contract for the exclusive presence of his range of products with the biggest film distributor in Bulgaria, holding a chain of cinema halls and video stores. It was about building up a consumer habit – Chips and Movies.
more
