Last week saw no fewer than three companies being fined by the competition council of the Competition Office, which concluded that their advertisements had misled customers. Henkel Kft has to pay a Ft 14 million fine, as the producer of Persil Power washing powder was not able to prove to the council’s satisfaction that the product cleans clothes more efficiently.
The Competition Office started proceedings because of two commercials, broadcast on different channels. It sought to examine if the commercials are liable to mislead customers.
The main message of one of the commercials was that the washing powder removes stains more efficiently than any other premium category products. The other commercial promised that the product removes general dirt from textile, making it whiter, and, at the same time, it claimed that the product whitens several types of stains presented in the commercials.
When the fine was imposed, the competition council took into consideration that the company was fined for the same reason last year. This resulted in an increase of the fine. The company was offered the opportunity to prove that its commercials were truthful, but refused to do so.
The competition council also fined Zott Hungary Kft because of the packaging of various kinds of chocolate, stating that the products are the most suitable product for children.
Meanwhile, meat processor Pick Szeged Rt was fined Ft 1 million for naming one of its bacon products the “tastiest” one.
According to the Competition Office, such a statement can only be applied to a product if it has been proven to be the best. Pick’s statement was misleading to customers, the office decided. The company is obliged to stop selling its product with packaging containing a “No. 1” sign.
“The No. 1 sign refers to a ranking and indicates first place, which only makes sense in comparison with other, less outstanding products,” the Competition Office said in a statement, adding that the company refused to prove that its statement was right.
The Competition Office has said that it is getting tougher in its fining practices because one-and-a-half decades of a market economy should have given local companies enough time and experience to learn how to respect competition law.
Last year, the office initiated 52 proceedings in the field of unfair influence of consumer decisions, leading to the imposition of fines totaling Ft 90 million.
All told, the total fines imposed by the Competition Office last year amounted to Ft 800 million, double the figure of the previous year and 15 times higher than in 2001.
Net increase
Online media owners expect the money spent on online advertisements in Hungary to increase by 35% this year.
Such is the finding of a recent survey by red-stars Interactive Communication Agency Rt.
Media owners also say a small increase can be expected in online media prices this year, following the stagnation or slight increase of last year. But the increase this year would still not reach the inflation level, experts said.
They say the FMCG sector is ahead of most others when it comes to taking advantage of the opportunities provided by internet advertising. Active advertisers also include real estate and financial service companies, according to the people questioned.
The sector expects more ads from the IT sector and the automotive sector, compared to last year, the study found.
This year’s experiences show that online media get more than 30% of their ad revenues through online agencies, the survey found. Besides that, classic offline agencies and their interactive departments account for more than one-third of the ad spending. The remainder – less than 30% – comes from clients directly contacting the media to seek advertising space.
The number of direct clients increased by 15 percentage points compared to the summer of last year, while online agencies’ share dropped. Red-stars conducts the survey every six months.
Offline agencies and their interactive departments, probably because of international clients, are increasing their role on the internet ad market, which indicates the recognition of the market and the maturity of local internet, the research concluded.
The media owners questioned said they expect a further strengthening of sponsorship in the field of online ad tools, partly because of sport events such as the European Football Championship and the Olympic Games organized this year.
Media owners agreed that the size of ads is growing and the role of video streaming solutions is increasing, a process helped by the increasing number of users with broadband connections.
The majority of media owners think that this year, the planned automatic filtering of pop-up windows in the next version of Internet Explorer will not have any impact on the online ad market, as new solutions will take the place of such ads.
Newspaper newspaper
For any people working in the print media who just can’t get enough of reading papers, a periodical specifically targeting that industry was launched at the end of May.
The paper, titled Lapkiadás (newspaper publishing), focuses on questions of the publishing industry and will be published every two months, numbering at least 52 pages.
The publisher is Grabowski Publishing Kft, and this company’s managing director, László Szakács, is the paper’s chief editor. According to the company, the publication targets the leaders of member companies of two trade associations – the Association of Hungarian Newspaper Publishers and the Association of Hungarian Distribution Supervision – and is also aimed at executives working in paper distribution, advertising and media, major press advertisers, politicians and decision-makers of related industries.
Grabowski also publishes travel magazine Úti cél.
For more on the media and advertising industry, see the Ad Infinitum archives at www.bbj.hu. Anita Benkô can be contacted at anita. benko@bbj.hu
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07.06.2004