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Thinking outside the box

BMD Advertising puts a new spin on Prague real estate market

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

 

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Moshon Levi, BMD Advertising's marketing director and founding partner, says his business philosophy is "no gray solution."
BMD Advertising

Plzeňská 56
Prague 5
Tel.: 251 001 981
Web: www.bmdadv.com

Just a decade ago, the Czech Republic was still considered part of Europe’s “Wild East” by many property developers and media experts. Industry was expanding rapidly across the country and demand for high-quality real estate was high. Yet the marketing and advertising sectors were severely underdeveloped, with many companies offering “cookie-cutter” solutions across the board to both domestic and international clients.
However, those conservative attitudes have changed significantly. The country’s atmosphere continues to be more and more attractive to international investors, particularly in the marketing and advertising realms.
One of the largest purveyors of this newfound shift in promotional know-how is BMD Advertising, which focuses on chain retailers and residential and commercial real estate. The company prides itself on “thinking outside of the box” in the marketing campaigns behind its many unique projects. In the time since its establishment, BMD has become a formidable force on the local real estate scene, handling 25 residential projects and six shopping centers nationwide. A Bucharest branch opened earlier this year, and a second branch in Sofia is planned for a spring 2008 opening.
Known among clients for his hands-on approach to advertising, Moshon Levi is both BMD’s marketing director and the company’s founding partner. Before arriving in the Czech Republic, the Tel Aviv native had more than a decade of marketing and advertising experience under his belt, including one year in Dallas, Texas. In 2001, he began a two-year association with Kenvelo department stores. Shortly after leaving, he established BMD Advertising in Prague with plans to expand the company as an East European franchise.
Levi took time off from his busy schedule to speak to The Prague Post about what’s changed on the Central and East European markets in the past 10 years, the company’s outlook for the coming year and how an emphasis on individuality goes a long way in real estate development.
The Prague Post: How would you describe BMD Advertising’s business philosophy?
Moshon Levi: Our business philosophy is “no gray solution.” In marketing, you need to have a little bit of guts, so there is never a gray solution to any problem. Our second philosophy is “service, service, service.” In the end, you’re working with people, not computers. We always say that we never understand the business of a client better than the client himself, but everyone who is working on a particular project has to understand the goals of the client until the end. As a company, you must give some added value to the project. We want to offer a different, unique solution to our clients. In the end, we are doing every job to meet our client’s goals and not our reward.
TPP: It’s been said that you’ve been influential in bringing new know-how to the residential and retail segments of the Czech real estate world. How have you done this?
ML: It’s really a combination between having external, international know-how and local know-how. I have a lot of contact and relationships with other companies in the world. Some of the markets that I worked in previously passed the situations we’re seeing here in the Czech Republic some time ago. It’s important to know the pulse of a given market, and we’re checking ourselves all of the time. You can see hundreds of older projects here in the Czech Republic, and these projects all look exactly the same. There was no inspiration. What was good three years ago in this field is history today. It’s not a cut-and-paste situation.
TPP:  What changes have come about during the time that BMD has been involved with the Czech real estate market?
ML: There’s much more competition on the market regarding clients. Clients are more sophisticated, and they have more choices in the market. The market has changed from being simply price-related to more quality-related. There’s a lot more value for your money. Several years ago, the market was hungry. Clients are more demanding today, and they are starting to ask more questions. Many international companies are now able to penetrate into the Czech market, which means that the local brands now have to follow international standards to stay competitive. There’s a huge change regarding media. … It’s become a lot more specialized. In the past two and a half years, we’ve had to allocate a lot more of our budget toward the Internet. It’s the best tool and channel for customers, and we see the results daily.
TPP: You’ve recently opened a Bucharest branch and hope to soon open one in Sofia. How does the real estate market here compare to that in Romania and Bulgaria?
ML: The market in Romania is about five years behind the Czech market, but it’s booming in all segments. So now is the time to penetrate. We can bring some of the know-how from the Czech market to the Romanian market, even though we know that the mentality is a bit different. You can’t find media at all if you’re not buying up front. There’s a lot more training necessary for our employees there. As for Bulgaria, we want to open in mid-2008, and it will be another piece in the puzzle of having a strong presence across Eastern Europe. We want to adopt the same philosophies there as we have here, with some local market adaptations. If you don’t catch the train now, you’ll miss it. It’s moving fast.
TPP: How do you see the future of BMD developing here in the Czech Republic?
ML: We’re growing every year 10 percent to 15 percent. We’ll be continuing to focus on the two real estate segments. We’re now trying to focus on things related to these two segments. We’re putting more effort into research, and we’re trying to build a solid image for ourselves as a company. I hope that next year we’ll be focusing on more chains regarding their marketing and advertising. One of our clients is a big developer in Prague 9. Now we’re collecting the information on the surroundings to prepare for the client in relation with the sales company. We want to learn from our previous mistakes, to find out what was good and what was bad in a given project.
TPP: What’s the most challenging thing about working in the Czech real estate market?
ML: The most challenging thing is to try to convince the client to think differently, to think outside of the box … to get them to understand that what was working two years ago doesn’t work now. Each project has to start from the beginning. … There’s more emotion involved, and each project is more unique. … When a client starts to build a brand, it will make sales easier. When they build a brand, they can get added value on price.
TPP:  What’s on BMD’s 2008 agenda?
ML: The focus of our 2008 agenda is to build up our Romanian client base and to establish the Bulgarian branch.

TPP: What sets your firm apart from competitors on the Czech real estate market?
ML: I’ve focused on the two main segments of real estate, so we’re really professional in those. The second thing is our level of service. Service is in the creativity and thinking behind a project. We try to be involved in all aspects of a project, and not just the marketing aspect. Mostly we provide services to companies that want to penetrate the East European market, so sometimes this means we have to red-light certain projects and help them to customize to the market here.

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at cwong@praguepost.com


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