Azerbaijan, Baku, March 27 / Trend, A.Badalova /
Azerbaijan has great potential for development of advertising market, CEO of international advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather Group in Central and Eastern Europe, Alex Herdt said at a press conference in Baku.
Speaking about the company's activity, Herdt said that by entering Azerbaijan's market the number of countries, where Ogilvy & Mather is presented today, has reached 126.
"Now we finally think we have found a right partner for Ogilvy & Mather like Azerbaijan, and it is very important. That took us quit a lot time. If it was up to me only we would have been entered market a little bit earlier. But, better today and better late than never," Herdt underscored.
He said Azerbaijan is a country, which is developing very fast. He expressed his confidence that services rendered by Ogilvy & Mather in Azerbaijan will grow as well.
"We see the potential for development of the advertising market in the country," Herdt said.
Ogilvy & Mather is an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in New York. American Express, BP, Ford, IBM, Nestlé and others are among its clients.
Herdt said that 25,000 people are working in 126 countries, which is a massive operation. He said persistence and creativity are main requirements of the company for its employees.
"It is a client business obviously. We are consulting clients and we are working for our clients, so we have to be honest," he underlined.
"The other idea is that we want to be the best. And I think that we did a pretty good job over the last couple of years, in particularly, by being number one in creativity," Herdt said.
He said creativity and effectiveness are two components that are extremely important.
At the same time, Herdt said the company sometimes faces difficulties. As an example he called the period of crisis which hits most part of the world, when clients are becoming more careful and spend less money on advertising. However, he believes it is not right. "It is investments into your business, but not expenditure," he said.
While speaking about competition between internet advertising and TV advertising, Herdt said he does not see the necessity to differ them, adding however, that Internet is becoming the major and major player.
He also spoke about the role of social network in the advertising market. He said social network is only one part of the entire markets. According to Herdt, despite the fact that the role of the social network is overrated, it is worth to admit the importance of its role in today's world.
As ADS Media CEO Elkhan Mahmudov said at the press conference, advertising market in Azerbaijan has passed a great path of development in the recent years.
He believes that with the new partner as Ogilvy & Mather, Azerbaijan's advertising market will reach a new level.
He said the main advantages of Ogilvy's entering the country's market will be opening of new jobs, introducing of new technologies, increasing the number of specialists in this area, and, of course, improvement of the advertising market in general and the emergence of new business brands.
"We hope that this partnership will help increase the number of brands in Azerbaijan, which, in turn, will lead to enhancing of the advertising market in the country," Mahmudov said.
He also said that by 2015 it is expected to increase the country's advertising budget up to $300-$400 million compared to the current budget of $80 million.
