“We’ve heard there is a company that will spend more than half a million dollars. We’ll try to ‘storm’ the market this year, too. We have almost 50,000 dollars prepared for advertising.” Mugurel Ceraceanu, general manager of Asiban, is hoping to get at least a slice of the RCA (auto civil liability) cake, which is being prepared by the Insurance Overseeing Commission (CSA).
The fiercest advertising campaign of insurers (for the RCA policies) is set to kick off next month, as usual.
RCA insurance policies are sold in this campaign, every December, immediately after the CSA reveals the name of the authorised insurers and the new tariffs for the only type of insurance that is still compulsory in Romania.
This year, the 15 insurance companies that expect to get this licence (down from last year’s 16) will spend an estimated 1.5-1.6 million dollars for the advertising campaign, up 30% as compared to last year, according to market players. An avalanche of TV and radio spots and print ads in newspapers and magazines will come down on viewers and readers soon. The stake? A market (gross underwritten premiums) that could exceed 75 million dollars this year, as compared to 63 million dollars in 2001. And there’s more: the numerous customers (about four million) buying this kind of insurance make up a great database for the insurers, which then try to sell their optional products (such as house insurance) to those clients they have already won over.
Moreover, the money they raise now will not be idle y yearend – it will make more money, as it will be deposited in banks or T-bills. As damages generally occur later on, the RCA campaign is a strong provider of cash, which some companies need like air.
“The budget accounts for 1.5% of the total volume of premiums to be cashed for RCA in 2003,” say representatives of Asirom, which last year sold 1.4 million RCA policies, that is 40% of the 3.6 million policies sold on this segment.



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