We often blog about advertising communications and talk about cases with advertisers, but rarely talk about the advertising market as a whole. And now this moment has come: we are publishing an interview with a real expert - Denis Sidorov, development director of the largest advertising and marketing media Sostav.ru.
Denis, tell us what you do and how you came to the advertising industry?
I received two educations: engineering in a technical university and strategic in Wordshop. While still studying at the university, I noticed that I often spoke in slogans from advertising. I fell in love with this industry a long time ago and read books on marketing, advertising and design - from Kotler to Ogilvy. Over time, I began to try my hand at freelancing in the development of logos, identities, and web design, and my main career ladder at that moment was developing in the commercial division of one of the leading companies producing security systems. In 2010, when I was offered to head the first representative office in St. Petersburg, I refused a leadership position and went in the direction of my dream - into advertising.
Through friends, I first got involved with a startup: I helped create and develop an online store from scratch. When the business started working, I decided to continue my development further and find a job in the advertising industry. And in January 2014, in “searching for myself,” I decided to first study the market from the inside and then decide where to go next. Thus, I came to Sostav.ru and here I found my new home, my hobby became a craft and dragged on, it seems, forever. Projects from the past (on developing a strategy or searching for communication channels) periodically appear, but have faded into the background, where I act only as a consultant.
Through friends, I first got involved with a startup: I helped create and develop an online store from scratch. When the business started working, I decided to continue my development further and find a job in the advertising industry. And in January 2014, in “searching for myself,” I decided to first study the market from the inside and then decide where to go next. Thus, I came to Sostav.ru and here I found my new home, my hobby became a craft and dragged on, it seems, forever. Projects from the past (on developing a strategy or searching for communication channels) periodically appear, but have faded into the background, where I act only as a consultant.
Tell us a little about Sostav, what is the project like now?
Sostav operates according to all the laws of thematic media. The media resource consists of an independent editorial team, which creates the main content, and a special projects department, which solves various problems and needs in promoting the brand or services of our advertisers. For more than 16 years, Sostav has been growing, developing and building its brand among audiences and other media.
We are distinguished by unique content relevant to two audiences: the business environment and trendsetters. This audience is not found on other platforms in such quantity and quality selection. If we talk about the composition of the audience, then 30-40% are top management, strategists and creative staff of agencies, and 60-70% are representatives of marketing advertisers and other media, journalists, colleagues and competitors.
Our main mission is to open the market and, with the help of information, simplify decision-making in marketing; another task is to help advertisers and agencies find each other for joint projects. For some, we talk about new brands and trends in the consumer market, while for others we publish analytics, expert opinions and best advertising practices.
We are distinguished by unique content relevant to two audiences: the business environment and trendsetters. This audience is not found on other platforms in such quantity and quality selection. If we talk about the composition of the audience, then 30-40% are top management, strategists and creative staff of agencies, and 60-70% are representatives of marketing advertisers and other media, journalists, colleagues and competitors.
Our main mission is to open the market and, with the help of information, simplify decision-making in marketing; another task is to help advertisers and agencies find each other for joint projects. For some, we talk about new brands and trends in the consumer market, while for others we publish analytics, expert opinions and best advertising practices.
Are you in charge of keeping this whole business afloat?
Only the well-coordinated work of the entire team and a clearly formulated format and vector of development can keep the entire business afloat. Now I am the director of resource development and at the same time head the special projects department. Together with the editor-in-chief, we are modernizing internal processes, looking for new options for presenting material and creating new sections.
Most news resources either chase “hype” news or dilute analytical materials. Our focus is on the “golden mean” - we publish only significant news for the industry and select analytics that help our audience make marketing decisions. This is especially important when there is so much unnecessary information noise.
Most news resources either chase “hype” news or dilute analytical materials. Our focus is on the “golden mean” - we publish only significant news for the industry and select analytics that help our audience make marketing decisions. This is especially important when there is so much unnecessary information noise.
What are the difficulties in the media that write about advertising and marketing?
To create interesting content, you need to understand everything: what laws the market lives by, what players are there, what are the specifics of advertising services and how the advertising industry as a whole works. If you understand the tasks of the agency business, marketing and communication tasks of brands, then you become “one of our own” among the sharks of the advertising business.
Accordingly, you need to be at the peak of trends and events, know the chronology of the development of the advertising market in Russia and understand practical things: whether digital television will win or not and why, who is now in the top ratings, who is included in associations or not, who is pushing what line. But if you read and don’t miss the news, then all this is understandable.
Accordingly, you need to be at the peak of trends and events, know the chronology of the development of the advertising market in Russia and understand practical things: whether digital television will win or not and why, who is now in the top ratings, who is included in associations or not, who is pushing what line. But if you read and don’t miss the news, then all this is understandable.
What, in your opinion, are the ways of development for advertising media?
Thematic media, including advertising, have basically two development paths: either create external business projects to meet the needs of their audience, from ratings to conferences, for example, or develop the main media resource and increase the audience along with offers for advertisers, taking into account development of media trends and changes in information consumption, which we are now actively observing. Every year, new requirements appear for advertising media, as well as for advertising itself, to capture the attention of consumers. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to retain the audience on media resources, since the focus is blurred by alternative channels: social networks, aggregators, video hosting, and so on. Therefore, you need to either grow on a large scale and be not just multi-channel, but emerge from all media and master the Internet of Things, or become a clearly targeted and highly specialized project.
In addition to the development of trends, of course, everything depends on the people who can ride it all. Sostav now focuses on an ambitious team capable of accumulating knowledge, analyzing events and new advertising technologies, and generating new ideas.
In addition to the development of trends, of course, everything depends on the people who can ride it all. Sostav now focuses on an ambitious team capable of accumulating knowledge, analyzing events and new advertising technologies, and generating new ideas.
Are you planning to do your own conferences or other offline projects?
We are not planning our own conferences yet, but we support partners in this direction, who are already in great demand among our audience. But at the same time, we periodically demonstrate industry round tables to the wider community through live broadcasts from event venues.
Our largest off-line project is the “Big Fish” award, which we created this year as a continuation of the annual online project “Results of the Year”. The award is unique in that it is absolutely free for all participants, and the selection of the “best of the best” is based on reviews of all advertising campaigns for the year in an open vote by experts from the advertising industry - representatives of leading advertising agencies, associations and major advertisers.
In addition, we have information and analytical products in interactive and printed versions with free distribution - “Advertising Market Maps”, “Advertising Technology Maps”, “Handbook for Advertising Tenders”. There are also many new ideas for the market in the offline and online environment, which we plan to implement in the new year.
Our largest off-line project is the “Big Fish” award, which we created this year as a continuation of the annual online project “Results of the Year”. The award is unique in that it is absolutely free for all participants, and the selection of the “best of the best” is based on reviews of all advertising campaigns for the year in an open vote by experts from the advertising industry - representatives of leading advertising agencies, associations and major advertisers.
In addition, we have information and analytical products in interactive and printed versions with free distribution - “Advertising Market Maps”, “Advertising Technology Maps”, “Handbook for Advertising Tenders”. There are also many new ideas for the market in the offline and online environment, which we plan to implement in the new year.
Tell us about your manuals, do you plan to publish them further?
We create the Guide, like our other thematic information products, based on a preliminary survey of the needs of our audience. When the first edition came out, the editor received a large number of calls with questions and a desire to purchase it, while it was distributed free of charge. This was a great response, so we plan to continue the project and develop this area.
What do you think is happening with advertising in Russia now?
We are often asked this question at meetings, and in the dialogues the following idea arose: the advertising market develops according to the “butterfly effect” principle, that is, when some high-profile event occurs, everyone tries to keep up with the “hype” and ride the wave. When the first rtb platform arrived, 10 similar services immediately appeared; When performance marketing services appeared, many agencies immediately rewrote their websites. There is also a reverse reaction: if the topic does not take off, then again everyone immediately renounces and rebuilds back.
Advertising budgets for the majority have changed, and everyone has begun to select contractors in a multi-stage and more careful manner and consider the effectiveness of the proposed solutions. Agencies and brands plan new advertising campaigns, allocate budgets and select new channels, paying closer attention to trends, successful cases, competitor news and consumer behavior.
The largest budget has always been allocated to the channels with the most coverage. And now most advertising videos are shot very short for placement in the digital environment, which greatly saves the budget, allows better targeting of the audience, more transparent viewing of analytics and calculation of the effectiveness of the campaign.
The trend of money leaving TV for digital continues to grow, as does mass automation of all kinds of advertising processes and services. In Europe, for example, the balance between them is already shifted away from traditional channels.
Advertising budgets for the majority have changed, and everyone has begun to select contractors in a multi-stage and more careful manner and consider the effectiveness of the proposed solutions. Agencies and brands plan new advertising campaigns, allocate budgets and select new channels, paying closer attention to trends, successful cases, competitor news and consumer behavior.
The largest budget has always been allocated to the channels with the most coverage. And now most advertising videos are shot very short for placement in the digital environment, which greatly saves the budget, allows better targeting of the audience, more transparent viewing of analytics and calculation of the effectiveness of the campaign.
The trend of money leaving TV for digital continues to grow, as does mass automation of all kinds of advertising processes and services. In Europe, for example, the balance between them is already shifted away from traditional channels.
In Russia the gap is also small, but you need to understand how this is measured.
All analytical services are constantly developing their metrics and allow them to measure many different indicators. Tasks of large coverage are increasingly being replaced by the generation of applications and other user actions.
One of the main tasks of the agency is forecasting an advertising campaign. The more clearly they plan the strategy, the better the result will be. At the same time, it is important for the advertiser that the consumer not only sees the message, but also wants to buy. And here two questions arise: what is more important - effective placement of an advertising video or whether what you see will encourage you to buy? Therefore, in order to become more competitive, agencies, in addition to analytics, are also building up creative competencies within themselves. By the way, one of the trends of the last two years is team building and retraining of employees.
And the internal kitchen is like this: in most cases, a brand comes for advertising on TV through a media agency, where tasks are developed and the budget is allocated. Just imagine, agencies hold a huge money pie of hundreds of billions of rubles, and at some point this money begins to flow into digital. And now everything is divided into two large continents: TV says that television will always be larger and therefore better, and digital claims that it is clearer and more accurately makes it possible to “feel” the audience and its behavior.
And even further, global players are uniting and creating a new media alliance and media meter, which raise prices for their services in the fight for return on investment. As a result, not all agencies can sell advertising to brands under the new conditions and are forced to rebuild, build up new competencies in digital and creative, or sell to large holdings and merge into new groups, or close the business altogether. This, by the way, is another answer to the question about the current situation in advertising.
One of the main tasks of the agency is forecasting an advertising campaign. The more clearly they plan the strategy, the better the result will be. At the same time, it is important for the advertiser that the consumer not only sees the message, but also wants to buy. And here two questions arise: what is more important - effective placement of an advertising video or whether what you see will encourage you to buy? Therefore, in order to become more competitive, agencies, in addition to analytics, are also building up creative competencies within themselves. By the way, one of the trends of the last two years is team building and retraining of employees.
And the internal kitchen is like this: in most cases, a brand comes for advertising on TV through a media agency, where tasks are developed and the budget is allocated. Just imagine, agencies hold a huge money pie of hundreds of billions of rubles, and at some point this money begins to flow into digital. And now everything is divided into two large continents: TV says that television will always be larger and therefore better, and digital claims that it is clearer and more accurately makes it possible to “feel” the audience and its behavior.
And even further, global players are uniting and creating a new media alliance and media meter, which raise prices for their services in the fight for return on investment. As a result, not all agencies can sell advertising to brands under the new conditions and are forced to rebuild, build up new competencies in digital and creative, or sell to large holdings and merge into new groups, or close the business altogether. This, by the way, is another answer to the question about the current situation in advertising.
What do you think will be the next game-changer in advertising?
Everything depends on the behavior of the consumer, so you need to follow him and be where he spends his time. This also affects the emergence of new advertising media, formats, channels, and so on. Therefore, an ideal communication strategy can no longer have only one channel; it intertwines TV and digital, and this creates new advertising technologies and new media.
Where is the line between TV and digital?
The line is becoming thinner and one thing flows into another, smart TV and “buy” buttons on remote controls appear. There are prerequisites that digital will win, but it will not completely replace TV. Many advertisers are still testing the Internet, and those who have grown out of digital are now trying TV advertising. As soon as video bloggers gain momentum and advertisers, TV channels immediately try to attract them to their projects.
Now large platforms, from Apple to Odnoklassniki, are creating their own shows for users. Do you think that as this trend [platforms creating their own content] increases, will big brands get into these kinds of stories?
Yes, most likely they will. If there is a resource to create a new channel for information consumption or a technological service that simplifies the consumer’s life, then the buyer will follow, and brands will follow, respectively.
But there are platforms, working with which there is no point in selling yourself to TV, because you are playing on an equal footing with it.
On the one hand, yes, but, on the other hand, money and consumer behavior always decide. You can remain independent, or you can sell out if “a suitcase with money or weighty arguments” comes and makes an offer that is difficult to refuse. When there is a choice, everything will be decided by the efficiency of the platform. If this is clearly demonstrated to brands, the entire market will switch to it instantly.
One should not lose sight of the practice when brilliant services were bought by competitors and closed down on purpose. Therefore, it is important to immediately accept the rules of the game - strive to become a market leader or grow to a successful sale.
One should not lose sight of the practice when brilliant services were bought by competitors and closed down on purpose. Therefore, it is important to immediately accept the rules of the game - strive to become a market leader or grow to a successful sale.
It is believed that eSports will be the main driver of growth in the entertainment industry. For example, Odnoklassniki has a special video showcase for esports. How will this affect the market?
When something new appears, market participants start playing with it. And if it brings results and does not lose relevance further, then it gets a chance to become not just mainstream, but a new channel over time. And if everyone has played enough and understands that there are no prospects in this, and at the same time a new toy appears, then everyone switches to it. eSports is now a new toy with great prospects, but also with its own fears and doubts that there is an audience there, but a unique one. Only a certain group of brands is currently more interested in it in the future than the hype around this situation now.
Looking at esports in terms of advertising costs?
Advertisers, of course, see that eSports has a huge audience in terms of numbers - a new crowd that is growing at a rapid pace. Therefore, now is the time to go there and try, even if only for the sake of “hype,” because the pioneers will be remembered by gamers for a long time.
In general, next year will bring big budgets to any sports equipment, because all brands will be there, and there is little warm space. Against this background, eSports will also try to pull the blanket over itself, but we’ll see who’s legs get out in the cold because of this, we’ll see in the end.
In general, next year will bring big budgets to any sports equipment, because all brands will be there, and there is little warm space. Against this background, eSports will also try to pull the blanket over itself, but we’ll see who’s legs get out in the cold because of this, we’ll see in the end.
Interviewed by Eldos Kulumbetov
