Romania: Brewers invested EUR164 million in advertising in January-October 2006

Brewers invested over EUR164 million (rate-card) in mass-media advertising over the first ten months of the year, topping the total budget earmarked for the same purpose in 2005, electronic paper Ziarul Financiar published November 20. In January - October period, the brewers' rate-card investments rose by 18% against the corresponding period of 2005 (EUR164 million in gross value, against EUR138 million in 2005), according to the AlfaCont report.

Brewers' investments in advertising rose by 38% in 2005 against 2004, according to Mihai Ghyka, general manager with Interbrew. The investments increased even though the market grew by 5% at most. The rise seen by the investments in advertising over the first ten months is in line with the market growth, which stands at 18-20%, as the producers estimate.

The beer industry ranks second among the investors in advertising, after the mobile telephony market, with 5.5% of the total budgets earmarked for promotion this year, according to the data issued by AlfaCont Mediatrack.

The brewers benefited from about 93,000 advertising inserts over the first ten months, against 78,500 over the same period last year.

"On a very mature market, like the beer market is, the competition is fierce at the brand level, which explains the large investments made in promotion. Moreover, the presence of multinationals on the domestic market made promotion and campaigns' level reach the international standards faster," says Constantin Bratu, general manager with Romanian Brewers Association, which comprises the local branches of the four multinationals that operate on the domestic market.

The domestic beer industry currently numbers over 60 brands, with more than half of them being produced locally, according to the data available on the market. Over 20 brands are currently promoted on TV channels.

According to AlfaCont data, Brau Union, the leader on the beer market, earmarked the biggest budget for promotion in January-October 2006 period, with the gross investments amounting to EUR49.5 million, up by 54% against the corresponding period of last year.

Brau Union, ranked the third at the end of last year, among the brewers that invested in advertising, became again the leader this year, thus intending to strengthen its market share. The domestic branch of SABMiller invested over EUR40 million in the first ten months (rate card), a 12% increase on 2005, while the number three on the market, Interbrew, allocated more than EUR35 million (rate card) for promotion, 9% more than in 2005, according to AlfaCont.

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