On October, 5 in Dnepr hotel the conference of the Industrial Committee of Outdoor Advertising (ICOA) took place.
At conference there were about 60 representatives of outdoor advertizing companies of Ukraine, large advertizing agencies, advertisers and leading mass media.
The report on the first year of work of ICOA and presentation of plans for the next year became a key subject of conference.
It is remarkable that this conference combined two important events – the first official presentation of ICOA to the public and total conference of the first year of Committee work.
At presentation of the first results of the ICOA companies-members of ICOA showed that the basic principle of Committee is not only openness and publicity of its work, but also an orientation on real actions.
The second important point is that fact that ICOA is the second branch Committee in the Ukrainian advertizing branch (after Industrial Telecommittee). ICOA is the first such project in outdoor media in CIS countries.
Opening conference, the head of ICOA, the director of the company BigBoard Yury CHARUHA told about the purposes and Committee tasks, results of the first year of work and also shared plans for the future. "The Industrial Committee was created in 2010. Today we have the first results of its work – the uniform research methodology of the market is approved, on the basis of the tender the companies which will conduct these researches are chosen".
Also on behalf of operators the initiative of creation of Industrial Committee was supported by the director general of RTM-Ukraine Group of Companies Oleg NEVELCHUK. He stopped in details on necessity of introduction of standards system for branch, told about the reasons of recent profitability falling of outdoor advertizing business and emphasized that all Ukrainian outdoor-operators will gain advantage from ICOA activity. "Thanks to ICOA work we had a clear understanding of tasks which must be solved. We have a tool. We have everything, it is necessary not to miss time", emphasized Oleg Nevelchuk.
The position of advertizing agencies was presented by Alexander Baranovsky, the executive vice-president of ADV Ukraine Group of media service, and by Alexander Gorokhovsky, the CEO Aegis Media/GMG. They told about importance of participation in work of ICOA of all players of the market – operators, agencies and advertisers.
Alexander BARANOVSKY emphasized that "researches of ICOA are important for all players of the market – operators, agencies and clients as they give to each of the sides effective tools for achievement of their goals".
"It is obviously for agencies that new measurements will increase trust of clients to outdoor advertizing and will allow agencies to use much more effectively this channel for achievement of marketing tasks of clients", told Alexander Baranovsky.
Alexander GOROKHOVSKY highlighted that ICOA, created by operators of the market together with advertizing agencies, will allow to accept weighed and balanced decisions in favor of all participants of advertizing process. And it will help outdoor advertizing to develop with higher rates".
We will remind that the Communication Alliance of Ukraine (monitoring) and Doors Consulting (research) became winners of the tender for carrying out researches of outdoor advertizing.
The Communication Alliance of Ukraine company is the operator of television, press and outdoor advertizing monitoring in Ukraine for many years.
The Doors Consulting company has excellent reputation and uses research technologies of the Russian company "Espar-analitik" which proved its reliability and efficiency in the work.
The director of Doors Consulting Sergey SMOLYAR maked comments: "My professional opinion: the market of outdoor advertizing in Ukraine is extremely underestimated. Today its annual volume is about $150 million. It should be three times as much. It is natural that we as "measuring instruments" don't affect the market directly, but we have strategic impact on its development. And this positive influence will lead to growth and market development".
The separate block of reports was devoted to representation of details and features of researches. Andrey Lutskiv, the head of the Communication Alliance of Ukraine, and Sergey SMOLYAR told about details and features of monitoring and measurements system which became the main market tool in the Ukrainian outdoor-advertizing.
Andrey RUDENKO, the executive director of ICOA summed up the results of the first year of Committee activity and finished the official part of conference: "The first year was very difficult. It was the year of our start. But we managed the main thing – we could find a mutual common ground, construct dialogue between advertisers, operators and agencies. We prepared and held the open and public tender, defined the most effective technique of researches and its operator. And the most important – we took a big step towards the public and open market with uniform rules of the game for all its participants".
The positive role of the changes in the market was noted by Artem BIDENKO, the head of Association of Outdoor Advertizing of Ukraine. He emphasized that fact that the outdoor advertizing showed not only mind, but also wisdom, ability to study on the recent omissions: "Work within ICOA frames speaks today about market ordering, about introduction of standards, about optimization of the relations with clients. It is sure, ICOA creation changes all media market of Ukraine".
Andrey NIKITICH, the head of Master Ad Ukraine agency continued his thought: "It is pleasant to see that something that was an exception few years ago, today becomes the rule and the norm. And it gives us forces to move forward more actively. It is necessary now to take a new step to the future: to form and introduce the next generation of work technologies - online and the automated booking systems, to work over increase of ROI efficiency of our clients and many other things".
Vadim FRUNZE, the head of Prime Group, commented the first year of ICOA work: "We took an important step. We found a common language and interests. But this first step will be successful only in case we make the next one – will begin system work on strategy of the market development. Then we will achieve the main goal – we will turn the Ukrainian outdoor advertizing into full-fledged outdoor media – the integral and important part of the international advertizing market".
The first conference of Industrial committee of outdoor advertizing came to the end. However its end became the beginning of a new stage of work – daily and system work on creation and introduction of uniform industry standards, formation of open and transparent market rules, deepening of using of modern technologies…
Twelve leading companies, the founders of ICOA, address to the other companies: "We began. Join us!"
