How did marketing communications groups perform in 2008?

Advertising company founded by Teddy Dumitrescu (photo) skyrocketed 60% in 2008, and almost doubled profit, to 1.2 million euros. The growth was largely due to the increase in Publicis Romania’s client base, adding new names, such as Orange, Alpha Bank, Phoenix/Gusto.

“As for Optimedia’s growth in 2008, the primary drivers were: the increase in client base, higher ad budgets as a result of the unprecedented economic boom over the past three years and not the least, the quantitative normal growth of the agency. It is very unlikely to experience a similar economic boom sooner than 3-4 years from now”, said Cezar Batog, general manager Optimedia.

With respect to the group‘s ad agency, Publicis, Alex Badila, managing director says the addition of new clients was the primary growth driver. Another factor is linked to the evolution of sales, and clients’business, that has implicitly led to an augmentation of sales volume and advertisers’ ad budgets.

“The increase in 2008 turnover at Publicis Events is primarily due to the fact that we‘ve managed to convince clients to grasp the meaning of communications with the help of events. In 2008, we registered a record number of events. We can also speak about a diversification in service range and harness staff expertise that boosted clients’ confidence in the company’s potential”, said Gabriel Constantinescu, general manager Publicis Events.

Agency	Billings 2008 (euro)	YoY chg (%)	Profit 2008 (euro)
Publicis	15,328,960	+26.7	412,484
Optimedia	31,239,531	+84.6	691,570
Publicis Events	2,130,987	+43.1	91.300
Total	48,699,478	+59.6	1,195,354