Cosmote boosts Ogilvy revenues in H1

Ogilvy Romania, the third biggest communications group on the domestic market, saw its revenues increase by around 48% in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.
The increase came after the company attracted new customers in new fields (beer, soft drinks, financial-banking and telecommunications) as well as international projects for British American Tobacco, Coca-Cola Adriatic & Balkans.
“One of the targets we set at the beginning of 2007 was to diversify our customer portfolio. This strategy started bearing fruit in the first half of 2008,” says Manuela Necula, Head of Country at Ogilvy Romania. However, she chose not to specify the nominal value of revenues.
The new customers in the first half of the year are Cosmote and Germanos, Cappy, Powerade, Ciuc, Gosser, ING, Sonae Sierra and Nestl?. The most important account gained during this period was for creation and media for Cosmote and implicitly the Germanos network. Until early May, the mobile telephony operator worked with advertising agency Cohn & Jansen and United Media agency for the acquisition of advertising space.
Once Bold Ogilvy, the Greek subsidiary of Ogilvy, got the account in Greece, the communications group took over the operator’s promotion services in all the five countries Cosmote is present in. According to international press reports, Cosmote’s account is put at around 75m euros, while Romania received 14m euros.
Locally awarded contracts account for 65% of Ogilvy Romania’s current business while the rest are network customers.
As regards the group’s revenues, Necula says each unit posted increases worth above 20% in the first half of the year.
Creation, digital marketing, retail & shopper marketing, event organisation, CRM and public relations account for around 55% of Ogilvy’s revenues, while media services account for the rest.
Last year, the group saw its Romanian turnover increase by almost 25% against 2006, when it reached 51.1m euros, while net income surged by around 28%, and reached around 1.3m euros. At the same time, the group’s fees and commissions advanced by around 22%.
Manuela Necula says last year’s performance was due to organic growth, new customers and the launch of new specialist services.
Although she states the domestic advertising market is registering ongoing development both in terms of investments, services diversification and workforce mobility, the Ogilvy manager notices a slower growth rate against 2007.
Ogilvy Romania belongs to the Ogilvy network, part of WPP, the world’s second biggest communications group, with revenues worth 12.3bn euros last year, up 13.6% from 2006. Ogilvy’s major rivals in Romania in terms of turnover are McCann Erickson, BBDO Romania, Grey Romania and The Group.