This blog was written by Alexander Christov, University of National and World Economy, one of the partners from JEMSS; He gives you a detailed insight on growing businesses due to the use of Digital Marketing in Bulgaria.
It seems, that digital marketing and social media management in Bulgaria is developing – just like everywhere in the world. Young people are attracted and the budgets in companies are being allocated, but just recently we can see clear and growing interests in this field from business perspectives – investments and development of new projects.
Why? Maybe because the conditions in the country are good. Maybe because the start-up culture is boosting – we see a lot of start-ups in the last years and a lot of publicity around them. Maybe because of the spoiled media landscape, that motivates companies to develop other channels to reach the consumers, including talking to them face-to-face. Or maybe because all those three preconditions.
The new projects and the investments in the digital marketing mean that there are not only innovative and attractive things, but expectations for profits. These business decisions also can fuel the development of the sector and attract more talents and more money. We are all waiting for this. And there is a good opportunity to learn faster in this dynamic field – since the MOOC course in digital marketing is developed.
Need examples? As of the beginning of September the multinational investment fund Opera Group acquired one of the leading digital agencies in Bulgaria – ilyan.com. The agency works on the digital marketing projects for some of the big brands in the country with vast activities online – like Lidl, Avon, Tefal, Nestle, Carlsberg, Luxoft, Danone and others. The deal is attractive also because ilyan.com is the only one in the country official Google Certified agency. This allows it to offer in its portfolio of services performance marketing – the newest model that refers to online marketing and advertising programs in which advertisers pay only when a specific action is completed – sale, lead or click.
Earlier this year another investment appeared to be successful. This is the social network Yatoto.com, made by entrepreneurs two years ago. Their incomes are made from socially responsible advertisers, which share their commercials in the platform, and some of the money paid by them can be given back to the viewers, their friends and more importantly – given to a CSR project that they support. Though the projects supported are not big (helping people in need, promotion of reading, construction of sport facilities and others), they are important, since it will be hard for them to find other financing.
Some of the digital marketing analysts say that the best is yet to come, some of them are not so optimistic. No matter what will happen, it is obvious that there is a need of young motivated digital marketing specialists. Then the investments will definitely come faster.