There is no point in making creative ads in Kazakhstan: expert

It is not reasonable to make expensive and creative advertisement in Kazakhstan, famous Kazakhstan advertising photographer, designer and ad maker Danil Oleinik told Tengrinews.kz. He believes that the quality level of Kazakhstan-made advertisement is quite acceptable for Kazakhstan market. The problem lays in small population, low purchasing capacity and small advertisement budgets. “There is no point in making expensive advertisement; it will not be paid off. Sometimes a simple explanation is more effective than sophisticated creativity. That’s why there is always a fear that Kazakhstan consumers will not understand it,” Oleinik said. He also noted that advertisement in Almaty is a separate case. “What sells well in Almaty, will also sell well throughout Kazakhstan. But if something is sold well in Kazakhstan it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be successful in Almaty. Almaty is not a good market indicator. The city is spoiled and filled with brands. It is very difficult to win consumers over in Almaty,” the ad maker added. Official representative of the Cannes Lions festival in Kazakhstan Askhat Uskembayev has a different point of view. He said at the press-conference times to the trip of Kazakhstan ad makers to Cannes Lions festival that the Kazakhstan-made advertisements were of low quality. “Kazakhstan advertisement is in the stone age. We have already started making hummers and knock out sparkles, i.e. we have started working in this direction,” Uskembayev said. He noted that the world’s progressive advertisement was much different from the one available in Kazakhstan. “The latest trends are that the ads are very simple in general and are aimed to generate immediate reaction from the viewers. The response is expected from the consumer straight away, via Internet, telephone or SMS. But we still have a one-way communication and there is no analysis of ads efficiency,” the speaker said. According to him, customers who buy ads should be taken to festivals like the Cannes Lions. This way they will be able to see how ads are made, their quality, presentation and creativity. According to the expert, this is the only way Kazakhstan advertisers will stop being scared of making interesting ads. “Right now the ad makers blame the customers and the customers blame the ad makers. It is a catch-22. Ad makers have to educate clients and show them all the available options and new tendencies,” Uskembayev added. 18 Kazakhstan works in Press and Outdoor categories were presented at the Cannes Lions on July 17-23. However, none of them got into the festival’s final. However, all the ads were available to public in interactive booths. By Vladimir Prokopenko