Russia, Male, Ashutosh Garg, English, Season 03, Business Leader, Marketing; Branding, YPO

Oleg Volkosh, President, Mediaplus Group, Russia

Posted on by Aparna Tripathi
20
Oct

Oleg Volkosh, President, Mediaplus Group, Russia

Member of YPO since 2012. Russian Chapter

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Overview

About Oleg Volkosh

Oleg Volkosh is the president of Media Plus Group in Russia. He is the founder and CEO of Channel 31. In 2011, he was recognized as the Person of the Year for his contribution to the development of the advertising industry. He is also a member of the Young President’s Organization.

Media Plus Group (work and origin)

On being asked about his work in Media Plus Group, Oleg answers by calling working in media especially advertising a fun but challenging task. Then he tells us about the time, when he started his company, Media Arts, in the Soviet Union in 1989. Three IT guys founded this company and focused on getting more profit and clients. Hence, they used to do everything apart from advertising as well. Later with the introduction of the internet, they established their business digitally. They soon realized in order to be successful in advertising, they need to go global and not just geographically, but also in experience exchange, networking and connectivity. Media Arts used to be a local company, the global brand was now called “Media Plus Group”. In 1994 they started working with a US-based food agency. Later in 2014, they started working with a Germany-based communications group “Service Plan” They have been working as partners covering more than 50 countries.

Building a Brand

Oleg says that this is the basic mission of advertising companies to build the best brand. Originally they did not know the answer to this and to understand this, they organized a competition called “Best Brands” which has now become an international competition for brands. In this competition, the results are determined by data provided by a research company called GFK. The data consists of the sales and people’s feelings towards those brands.

How have you seen Advertising change?

On being asked this question Oleg says that he feels that advertising in the 1990s seems to be his past life since everything has been completely changed about it, except, the need for an open and transparent relationship with the client. Apart from this, the processing, technology, approaches, creativity, etc. have completely changed. Then he adds that the existing reality of marketing is more about the personification of the messages. This personification is the biggest change that has influenced all the changes in the industry.

How is technology changing advertising?

To answer this question, Oleg shares an instance when he was in a conversation with the then main speaker of Best Brand awards, Mr. Neil Saporta, about artificial intelligence. He was told by Mr. Saporta that in near future, the available data about people will get deeper and precise. That would consist of what individuals are talking about, reading or watching, etc. The biggest challenge for advertising companies would be to use this data for their benefit and make something meaningful out of it. But for the current scenario, Oleg’s favorite is the content on social media. As an advertiser, he not only takes social media as a way to communicate with people but also to understand the insights of the audience. For him, this is the top tool and the best insight instrument they are using right now.

Adjusting to changing mode of advertising from TVs to handheld devices.

Oleg as a member of an advertising company thinks he needs to be open about these transformations and they have to be technological at par with the customers. Due to this, he feels that the new generation in advertising is doing a better job for clients.
Adjusting to the shorter span of Ad time. By this question, Oleg is reminded about his longest commercial ad of 60 seconds in 2005, which was then considered the best campaign in Russia. He says now it is a completely new era, everything has become faster and people have lesser time. He again mentions the importance of maintaining pace with the new environment.

What does success mean to Oleg?

For Oleg, success is a combination of staying in the present rather than living in past or dreaming about the future and maintaining a balance between personal and professional relations.

Advice to young entrepreneurs.

Oleg says the biggest thing one can do is self-transformation and self-growth with a motive of never stopping.

Profile

Position: President of Mediaplus Group   

                RUSSIA/YPO Impact Officer

Career: In 2002 Oleg accepted a proposal of his long-time business associates and headed Media Arts FCB agency which in 2003 took the leading position in the attraction of new customers in Russia. Headed by Oleg Volkosh Media Arts FCB was renamed FCB MA in 2004 and became DraftFCB in 2008 because of the international merger of Draft and FCB nets. Oleg was Media Arts Group Vice-President for BTL and creative services and then Senior Vice-President. On April 20, 2010 Board of Directors appointed Oleg Volkosh to the position of the President of Media Arts Group holding. Since 2016 he has been a head and a partner of Mediaplus Group Russia – the part of SERVICEPLAN international network media holding.

Experience: Oleg Volkosh was an administrator at the State Committee on TV and Radio of Kazakh SSR (February 1990 through March 1991) and an editor of the international TV contest Voice of Asia (1991-1992). In 1992 he established and headed the advertising agency Rival. Then in 1993 Oleg created and became the head of Channel 31, TV and Radio company which was one of the first commercial media-holdings in Kazakhstan. Also he established RosMediaMonitoring company (RMM) and was its general director in 1994-1996. RMM together with Gallup Media was transformed into Gallup AdFact company in 1996 with Oleg at the head until 2002. 

In 2011 Oleg Volkosh became Person of the Year for ‘Contribution to the Development of the Advertising Industry’. Person of the Year awards has been initiated by RBC media holding.

In 2012 Oleg Volkosh joined YPO. Since 2016 he has been a member of the Executive Committee of YPO Russia, PR and Communication Officer and in 2017 he headed the Russian branch of YPO and became Chapter Chair of YPO Russia. In 2018 he joined the YPO Europe Board and Executive Committee. Starting the year 2018 he is the first YPO Impact Officer in Europe.

Aparna Tripathi

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