www.lionsdailynews.com friday, june 24 , 2011

whose current showreel includes automotive brand skoda.
then there is russia itself. While the country is geographically
out on a limb, there’s no question that it is becoming a
force to be reckoned with in the advertising business. in part,
this is because of the diversity of its architecture and locations
— everything from the kremlin and Bolshoi to mountains,
lakes and tundra. But just as significant is the value of the domestic
economy, which is proving a big attraction to brands and
agencies, most of which have offices in moscow. it’s no accident,
for example, that russia will be represented by 295 works
in Cannes this year. or that a leading agency such as
BBdo/moscow is making as many as 200 commercials a year.
in terms of production talent, russia can boast companies
including Just production (clients include american express
and siemens), park production, (Coca-Cola, heineken, lG,
mars, etc) and Bazelevs, which has recently produced spots
for nissan tilda, nike air max (featuring andrey arshavin)
and kit kat. the latter ad, directed by Cannes lions gold winner
Joachim nielsen on his fourth visit to russia, demonstrated
the can-do attitude of russian crews.
it was shot in front of the hotel ukraina at the height of
moscow summer heat, and nielsen insisted on a stunt which
saw the central actor dropped from height into an armchair -
something lesser mortals might have achieved using computer
graphics.
for Bazelevs’ iva stromilova, executive producer in
charge of movies and commercials, there is no doubting the
calibre or enthusiasm of the local talent. But for her, shooting
in russia offers more: “here in moscow you have everything
a civilised production should have. But on top of that
you get to shoot in the most picturesque locations, meet the
most beautiful russian women, and go to fun night clubs
and great restaurants!”
of course, it’s important to stress that the Czechs and
hungarians haven’t been sitting back complacently while new
markets promote their cause. Zoom, for example, now offers a
choice of locations in the Czech republic, slovakia and Croatia.
not only does this widen the range on offer, it also allows it
to offer lower price-points. in hungary, meanwhile, companies
such as Bpps are trying to reassert the cost-effectiveness of
shooting in that country. “hungary is still an inexpensive place
to shoot — particularly after the financial crisis,” ungvari says.
“the prices haven’t changed all that much in the past few years.
Bpps is a small company with extremely low operational costs,
which is how we keep our overheads low. i would rather have
more jobs than a quick profit.”
if there’s a challenge for the whole of the Central and
eastern european region, it’s that production companies in
other parts of the world have also been getting cheaper as a
result of the economic downturn. Grousset says he has been
going to eastern europe less in the last year “because producers
in markets like spain and france are willing to negotiate
foCus on Central & eastern europe 69
“We have the Carpathian
mountains, the BlaCk sea,
Beautiful Cities and nature ...
You Can find anY solution
for anY shoot”
arthur fleshtor
lower prices than they used to. that comes at the same time as
many advertisers are looking to use more local people in their
ads and shoot one campaign for a number of territories. so it is
a challenging business right now.”
poland should be talked about more in the context of
commercials production. after all, it is home to a vibrant agency
and production base. local production houses include tandem
taren-to, easy hell, film Works, film it and lodz-based
opus (which reckons to shoot 60 international and local ads a
year). there are also post-production houses including the
Chimney pot, which has worked on spots for the likes of orange,
danone, nestle, knorr and Zywiec.
part of the reason poland has been slower to gain profile
is that it took a long time to shake off the grim image that stuck
after the collapse of the soviet union. even now, Warsaw lags
behind prague and Budapest as a desirable destination.
that said, those in the know — such as emerge films
solutions — talk up poland’s appeal as a rural and an urban
location: “there are three main cities of filming interest. Warsaw,
a modern city with a full variety of easily accessible urban
and suburban looks; krakow, probably the most charming and
picturesque city in poland; and Wroclaw, an important centre
for production that has doubled for 19th century amsterdam.”
there are reasons to be optimistic about the country’s
prospects when it comes to commercials production. first, it is
a much bigger market than the Czech republic or hungary
(38 million vs 10 million each respectively), which means there
will always be a need for domestic ad production, even if servicing
work is not strong.second, it is about to co-host uefa’s
euro 2012 with ukraine, an event that will provide a massive
stimulus to the local economy during the coming decade, and
presumably see a rush of commercials linking big brands to
the event. marcin herra, who is in charge of the polish half of
the competition, is expecting one million extra visitors to come
to poland and spend €200m during the event. longer term,
herra reckons the positive impact for the economy over the
next eight years will be €1.5bn-€2bn. in addition, herra believes
it “gives us a chance to speed up development and modernisation
of the country. it is also a chance to improve our brand -
the image of the country.” ^
FRIDAY, JUNE 24,2011