Gazprom-Media Holding takes part in National Advertising Forum

The 5th National Advertising Forum was held in Moscow from September 23-24. The large-scale business event for the media communication industry took place at the Oktyabr film centre. This year the forum’s program was made up of 30 professional sessions that featured more than 250 speakers who discussed a wide range of topics, from modern technologies to industry research of the advertising market. Gazprom-Media Holding served as the main partner of the event. The Holding’s CEO Alexander Zharov took part in the strategic session, which looked at the dialogue between government and businesses as well as the role of the media communications industry in the national economy.

Alexander Zharov spoke about the current trends in the development of the global entertainment industry. 
 

Speaking about the development of digital platforms, Gazprom-Media Holding CEO Alexander Zharov noted that huge financial resources, which sometimes surpass the capabilities not only of local platforms but entire nations, allow companies to dictate their priorities in what content is produced and purchased from local content creators, to spend significant amounts to attract and retain audiences. In these conditions, Russian creative businesses obviously lack a unified industry stance, and also need transparent rules and equal economic conditions for all.

The winners of the Top Managers of National Business Communications awards were also recognised in a ceremony on the first day of the forum. Alexander Zharov received an award in the “Media holdings” nomination in the “Media” category. Three other representatives of Gazprom-Media companies received awards. The chief producer of NTV channel Timur Weinstein was recognised in the “Media” category’s “Television” nomination. The general manager of GPM Radio Yury Kostin received a special “Breakthrough of the year” award. This is his second award in the competition. The year before he received it “for stable success” in the “Radio” category. Alina Efimova, deputy general manager for sales at Gazprom-Media Sales House, won the “Sales house” nomination in the “Agencies” category.

The findings of the studies on TV sponsorship effectiveness were presented at Gazprom-Media Sales House’s own forum session titled “Sponsorship - a brand’s best friend”, which was made up of two parts. The general manager of Gazprom-Media Sales House Ekaterina Veselkova moderated the first part of the session while the deputy general manager for sales Alina Efimova moderated the second part.

Ekaterina Veselkova presented a study on the effectiveness of sponsor advertising and spoke about brand goals that sponsorship can solve, backing up her argument with real life cases.
 
Tina Kandelaki, deputy CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, moderated a session featuring the top Russian publishing houses - “Print as a driver of quality content”. The present and future of print media were discussed at the session.
 

Representatives of the leading players on the radio market discussed the drivers and barriers to the segment’s future growth as part of the radio summit. Yulia Andryushova, director of the business communications and analytics department at GPM Radio moderated the session titled “The future. Radio. Transformation: Challenges and opportunities for growth”. Session participants discussed the variety of available advertising opportunities, the creation of innovative products and analytical research on radio advertising. Yulia noted that one of the key demands among advertisers are tools for assessing the effectiveness of radio advertising. Advertisers from the Top 100 group claim there is a lack of information about the effectiveness of audio advertising, while clients from the regions point to a lack of data about the target audience of radio stations, which would serve as a guide when choosing which station to advertise on.

Yulia also took part in the session MIXX: Digital Audio, which the GPM Radio sales director Alexey Zyatitsky moderated.

The strategic session MIXX Russia Conference opened the second day of the National Advertising Forum. It presents the digital aspect of the forum. Artem Pulikov, deputy general manager for development and monetisation of digital assets at Gazprom-Media Sales House, participated in the session. Participants discussed optimal strategies for advertisers in changing market conditions. The National Advertising Forum held four other digital-themed sessions in which Gazprom-Media Holding representatives participated: MIXX: Mobile Ad, MIXX: Digital Video, MIXX: Podcasts and MIXX: Advanced TV. 

The MIXX: Mobile Ad session was dedicated to new technologies in the mobile advertising sector. Alexey Krupenin, director of the key clients and network agencies relations department at Gazprom-Media Sales House, took part in the discussion. The development of mobile ads in Russia and the world, the specifics of the collaboration between agencies and clients in working with mobile ads, privacy-safe marketing and the technological advantages of the digital sphere were among the topics discussed at the session.

“TV vs. Bloggers. New round” was the motto of the MIXX: Digital Video session. Alexey Filia, director of the strategy and advertising products development at Gazprom-Media Sales House, took part in the session. The discussion centred on the present and future of visual entertainment, efforts to capture the audience’s attention, how this affects advertising budgets today and what might happen tomorrow. The session participants talked about collaboration opportunities and synergies among the best video and TV platforms.

Andrey Trofimov, head of the Gazprom-Media PodcastBar label, took part in the MIXX: Podcasts session. The session participants discussed what media holdings and radio holdings need to start working with podcasts systematically. 

Working tools, market dynamics and the development of Advanced TV were discussed at the MIXX: Advanced TV session. Natalia Isangulova, head of the advertising products department at Gazprom-Media Sales House, took part in the discussion.

Another three Gazprom-Media Holding representatives took part in other sessions of the National Advertising Forum. Artemy Gladchenko, marketing director of Friday! TV channel, took part in the “Best UN practices” session. Ilya Popov, deputy general manager for regional advertising at Gazprom-Media Sales House, attended the TV2B Regions session while Vera Larlomkina, an HR partner of Gazprom-Media Sales House, took part in the HR Summit.