Interbrew Romania, the third largest player on the local beer market invested over 55 million euros (rate-card) last year to promote all the beer brands in its portfolio, says Mihai Ghyka, general manager of Interbrew.
The amount invested is 48% higher compared with 2005, when Interbrew had earmarked 37.1 million euros to promote its brands, according to AlfaCont.
"The domestic advertising market is growing by 25-30% in value, but this growth is mainly because of the rising prices of commercial airtime on television. The higher the price becomes, the more necessary it is for us to consider using other media. The printed media and the outdoor advertising become more interesting," states the general manager of Interbrew.
According to Ghyka, an effective promotion campaign must be planned like a media mix and not like a campaign mainly focused on the television channels.
"Our presence on the outdoor segment is rather qualitative and precise and we do not use the outdoor network permanently. We are not a major investor in the outdoor segment," explains Ghyka.
Mihai Ghyka, who was appointed to the position of general manager early last year, has been working with Interbrew for more than eleven years, starting as a financial controller and then becoming the company's marketing manager. His name is linked to the development of one of the most powerful brands on the local beer market, namely Bergenbier.
Last year, a few months after he was appointed general manager, Interbrew launched a new brand on the market, Lowenbrau, which taps into the segment of PET-bottled beer. Thus, Romania became the first country that received the authorisation to produce Lowenbrau on the local market, just like it happened with Beck's. In Germany, as well as in over fifty countries where it is sold, Lowenbrau is not available in PET containers, but only in bottles and cans.
"After we launched Lowenbrau we had to optimise our production capacity on the fly, due to the high demand, and thus we decided to open the factory based in Baia Mare (which usually works only six months a year i.e) six weeks earlier than it was scheduled. It was not an easy decision, especially considering that such a process entails high costs," Ghyka added. The beer factory based in Baia Mare does not function throughout the entire year because the beer consumption depends on the season and because the local market is still quite volatile.
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