Do commercials in Belarusian cost more?
According to experts, it is expensive “to teach” commercials “to speak” Belarusian. Even taking into account the fact that commercials “in our language” interest consumers, customers and PR makers. Representatives of advertising companies have tried to answer the question this Monday: “Is it possible to teach commercials to speak Belarusian?”. It has turned out that there is no simple answer. However, the director of the agency “Adventa Initiative Media” Aleh Stasheuski has admitted that the issue needs to be discussed.
Aleh Stasheuski: “It is easy to get recognized with the help of the Belarusian language in a country where 90 or 80% of the content is in Russian, where the President speaks Russian and presenters speak Russian. However, is it necessary? It is difficult to answer this question now. But it is worth mentioning that it is another way to promote goods and an additional means of identification of products, their origin and etc.”
The director of the Publicis Hepta agency has supported his colleague.
Alyaksandr Vasіlevіch: “The population has no aversion to commercials in Belarusian, but agencies work with the reality. And this reality is the fact that the majority of the population, about 95%, speak Russian or a language resembling Russian – this is a fact”.
According to the creative director of an advertising agency “Yanka” Yan Karpau, every producer is interested in bigger sales of their products and they prefer addressing consumers speaking Russian.
Yan Karpau: “An advertising agency has to prepare a lot of arguments to make a Belarusian commercial and to make a lot of people sure that this is necessary”.
According to specialists, no research proving that Belarusian commercials are more effective than Russian ones has been conducted. So the customer needs a clear explanation why commercials in the mother tongue are better. The majority of agencies just do not need this trouble and they agree to make commercials in Russian.
At the same time, Yan Karpau is sure that advertisers would not oppose to promoting their products in Belarusian.
Yan Karpau: “There are different incidents of using the Belarusian language in commercials. Somebody would like to highlight the Belarusian origin of the product. Others would like to draw the attention of a certain group of citizens. However, Belarusian is so rare now that the first reaction to it being used in a commercial will result in attracting attention”.
In the end, participants of the meeting agreed that people liked commercials in Belarusian, customers did not oppose to them and agencies were ready to make such commercials. But they have not told journalists why the number of Belarusian commercials was so small. Some representatives of companies admitted that they lacked employees having a good command of the language to invent eye-catching slogans that would remain in people’s memory. Aleh Stasheuski added that was expensive “to teach” commercials “to speak” Belarusian.
Aleh Stasheuski: “Making a language popular is expensive. The main idea is to create a number 1 band. As soon as it is created, it will become the locomotive that will promote other brands”.
A lot of Belarusian commercials appear not only on TV but also on the Internet. Journalists have asked specialists how the state’s desire to take control over the Internet can influence the market of Internet advertisements. Alyaksandr Vasilevich has suggested a sad forecast.
Alyaksandr Vasilevich: “Unfortunately, we have no answer. Nobody knows what will happen to the Belarusian Internet. Even those who want to control it. Everything I read about the decree, some orders and internal documents, just made me even more confused. But is it clear that the market will be destroyed if strong sate influence and strict regulation are imposed on the sphere of the Internet”.
Nevertheless, representatives of different companies are making a number of commercials in Belarusian in the framework of the Belarusian commercials promotion festival “However”. They are hoping that the results of their work will not only satisfy viewers, but will also ensure customers of the necessity to translate their commercials into Belarusian.
Photo by: Zmitser Lukashuk
Aleh Stasheuski: “It is easy to get recognized with the help of the Belarusian language in a country where 90 or 80% of the content is in Russian, where the President speaks Russian and presenters speak Russian. However, is it necessary? It is difficult to answer this question now. But it is worth mentioning that it is another way to promote goods and an additional means of identification of products, their origin and etc.”
The director of the Publicis Hepta agency has supported his colleague.
Alyaksandr Vasіlevіch: “The population has no aversion to commercials in Belarusian, but agencies work with the reality. And this reality is the fact that the majority of the population, about 95%, speak Russian or a language resembling Russian – this is a fact”.
According to the creative director of an advertising agency “Yanka” Yan Karpau, every producer is interested in bigger sales of their products and they prefer addressing consumers speaking Russian.
Yan Karpau: “An advertising agency has to prepare a lot of arguments to make a Belarusian commercial and to make a lot of people sure that this is necessary”.
According to specialists, no research proving that Belarusian commercials are more effective than Russian ones has been conducted. So the customer needs a clear explanation why commercials in the mother tongue are better. The majority of agencies just do not need this trouble and they agree to make commercials in Russian.
At the same time, Yan Karpau is sure that advertisers would not oppose to promoting their products in Belarusian.
Yan Karpau: “There are different incidents of using the Belarusian language in commercials. Somebody would like to highlight the Belarusian origin of the product. Others would like to draw the attention of a certain group of citizens. However, Belarusian is so rare now that the first reaction to it being used in a commercial will result in attracting attention”.
In the end, participants of the meeting agreed that people liked commercials in Belarusian, customers did not oppose to them and agencies were ready to make such commercials. But they have not told journalists why the number of Belarusian commercials was so small. Some representatives of companies admitted that they lacked employees having a good command of the language to invent eye-catching slogans that would remain in people’s memory. Aleh Stasheuski added that was expensive “to teach” commercials “to speak” Belarusian.
Aleh Stasheuski: “Making a language popular is expensive. The main idea is to create a number 1 band. As soon as it is created, it will become the locomotive that will promote other brands”.
A lot of Belarusian commercials appear not only on TV but also on the Internet. Journalists have asked specialists how the state’s desire to take control over the Internet can influence the market of Internet advertisements. Alyaksandr Vasilevich has suggested a sad forecast.
Alyaksandr Vasilevich: “Unfortunately, we have no answer. Nobody knows what will happen to the Belarusian Internet. Even those who want to control it. Everything I read about the decree, some orders and internal documents, just made me even more confused. But is it clear that the market will be destroyed if strong sate influence and strict regulation are imposed on the sphere of the Internet”.
Nevertheless, representatives of different companies are making a number of commercials in Belarusian in the framework of the Belarusian commercials promotion festival “However”. They are hoping that the results of their work will not only satisfy viewers, but will also ensure customers of the necessity to translate their commercials into Belarusian.
Photo by: Zmitser Lukashuk
