Internet freebies bring profit

Two connoisseurs in matters of marketing in 1998 established the core of something that would later become a group of four companies – three dealing in advertising and one ISP, with over $1 million in turnover per year.

To the Internet users in Romania, especially to the younger ones, the Moka (i.e. Romanian approximate equivalent of freebie) name has become familiar mainly through the emoka.ro free e-mail service and through the free Organizer magazine; the money for these projects comes from a less known business of the group.

Although a Law School graduate, Damian Nedescu has never practiced Law, preferring to earn his money from other jobs.

Until 1998, Nedescu worked in sales and marketing departments within Bell Pagette or Sensiblu. One day he decided he should start working for himself, so that he established his own advertising business together with a friend.

“The idea of my own business came to me pretty easy. Me and my friend were determined not to work for other people any longer. As both of us were working in the marketing field and carried out negotiations with suppliers for large international companies, we were very well aware of the advertising market we entered,” Nedescu says.

This is how Tex Promotion Company, which is now working for big clients on the Romanian market, was born in 1998. Its clients include McDonald’s and Nestle.

To produce “special” advertising materials, Damian Nedescu and his partner would later establish Brand International. Ever since 1999, this company has been taking care of all special advertising production means, that is items produced only for special occasions, such as promotions or product releases.

“We cover this segment because there’s no way one could import such kind of materials, in general,” Nedescu says, adding that there are only a few companies in Romania dealing in the same business.

Brand International makes stands or special works, i.e. personalised packaging bearing the logo of a photographic supplies firm or single-use special boxes for promoting a product.

Last year, the intention of finding how an advertising business could expand by means of a virtual store, pushed the two-company man to test the Internet waters and open a third company, TPC&D Advertising.

This firm sells several categories of promotional articles: T-shirts, caps, sweaters, jackets, bags, that can be personalised according to the client’s preferences, conducting its business solely over the web.

The www.promotionale.ro website is a presentation site rather than a virtual store, since it has no facility for placing orders and no price list.

At the same time, there is a minimum amount of items requirement (i.e. 100 T-shirts) for placing orders, with the shipment reaches the buyer in “at least one week” from the moment when the order is placed.

The real entrance in the “new economy” world took place in November 2000, though, when the latest company of the group, Information Technology Systems (ITS) was created around the “moka” concept, meaning free Internet services or at least cheaper than those provided by the competition.