Today’s communications budgets tend to shrink due to the overall economic evolution. According to Initiative Worldwide that is releasing the annual Media Fact Book, the Romanian media market estimate for 2012 is hitting EUR 303 million, marking the fourth consecutive year of contraction.

Although the TV, Radio, Print and outdoor - OOH - have been constantly contracting since 2008, the Internet Media market will gracefully end the eighth year of constant growth from EUR 2 million in 2004 to EUR 41 million in 2012. As history shows, it is the worst times that offer the best opportunities for newcomers to penetrate the market, and in this industry, there is definitively a star rising above the shrinking industry.

The communication paradigm is constantly changing and reshaping due to the new market constraints and it seems that the internet and new technological breakthroughs coming along with it are better and more efficient in answering to the new demands. The marketers are more than ever challenged to find new and more efficient tactics and the Internet communication channel is throwing them a rope, making them reconsider the entire marketing strategy.

“The challenge is to identify strategies that best serve the clients, to convince them that it’s the best way of reaching marketing and/or sales objectives and to over-deliver. We are building bridges between marketing and new technologies thus offering creative and efficient strategies. The multitude of tools and tactics offered by the Internet and new technologies gives us a lot of room for finding the best solutions for our clients; if they want to increase awareness, engagement, or want to sell more or identify or break-into new markets,” says Ciprian Salceanu (in picture), Business Development Manager of WebVenture Interactive, a young interactive agency.

He goes on: “We are in a field where the speed and receptiveness in adapting to new technologies is far more important than many years of expertise. This young industry can be negatively affected by too much “traditional expertise”, to the detriment of flexibility and can be exponentially enhanced by the power of integrating the latest techniques.”

The Internet is rewriting the rules of the pitching process, transforming it into an objective-centered process rather than the old budget-centered idea that traditional advertising agencies were so comfortable with. More than ever, creativity has to be efficient and strategically planned, while the investment has to find the return in record time. In this, Internet seems to be the answer, again.

From a stage when online was the small component in a campaign, the market has evolved so that nowadays the majority of campaigns are using the Internet as a key-channel of communication. We are already seeing more and more Internet-centered campaigns in which online is the first violin, and the other communication vehicles are cast in supporting roles.

Having a more strategic role, the Internet communication has to be well and strategically planned in order to support the objectives that marketing managers are setting up. The interactive agencies have to be better and better trained as the demand evolved from “presentation websites” to complex online campaigns that stress results.

The Internet penetration is still low in Romania, hitting 13 percent in 2011, but following an increasing growth rate from year to year, it is opening new opportunities for advertisers. The penetration of new content services such as video-on demand, streaming and online radio is making the Internet even more attractive and fertile for more interactive communication channels.

The social implications of these trends are strong. While new areas of expertise are needed, the old ones tend to become obsolete. The traditional “full service” agencies are facing difficulties in selling their in-house expertise accumulated in many years to cover new needs. The process of reconverting is often hard and leads to unpopular decisions, but it has to be passed in order for a traditional agency to survive. As long as the employees are ready to break the old paradigms while embracing new skills and capabilities the success is guaranteed. But in many cases, the structures are not so flexible and the reconversion is a hard and painful process that can lead to a failure.

(P- this article is an advertorial)