Gabriel Nedelea: Sunshine Digital – I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it again

Gabriel Nedelea is a known name on Romanian digital advertising market, as he is an active entrepreneur that already founded 2 agencies and also due to the work he did for a number of different and known brands and important clients.

Until this year, Gabriel worked at Metromind, where he was also partner, than he decided to found a new agency, Sunshine Digital Communication. He told us more about the new agency, the plans it has and what happened for his Sunshine team this year, but also some about what he hopes that next year will bring.

AdHugger: You founded Sunshine Digital after you decided to leave Metromind. Why did you decide to make this step?

Gabriel Nedelea: After four years of hard working, the gap between my views on business strategy and my partner’s had widened, so it became obvious that we could no longer continue on the same path. Although Metromind was very dear to me, starting fresh became more and more the only option.

And I did it for me. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it again: to put together a digital agency that could deliver wonderful projects for important brands in the online environment.

AdH: What are the main changes? Did you also leave with some of the clients?

G.N.: I cannot say that I changed something in particular. I think that it’s more like an evolution, especially since my team followed me in this new challenge. Fortunately, they were not the only ones to do so. After discussing this change with my clients, I realized that everybody was on board. It is a wonderful feeling to see people sticking to you like this. That means you are doing something right.

AdH: What is your agency portfolio of clients in this moment and what kind of services are you offering to them?

G.N.: We have clients from different industries like beauty and healthcare: L’Oreal Romania, Garnier, Maybelline NY, Vichy, La Roche-Posay or Kerastase; in the banking area we are the social media agency for Raiffeisen Bank; we are also developing mobile applications for Siemens; in the automotive industry we are working for Volvo Cars and Michelin. We are also developing interesting projects for some local Romania brands like Cartusel and Green Dental.

In terms of services provided, we position ourselves as a full service digital agency. Let me expand on that for a moment: we do everything from concept and strategy, to targeting and communication using social media or going viral, covering all services: design, development, optimizing and copy-writing. 

By full service, I am also taking into consideration offline elements that some of our concepts or campaigns need in order to be a success.

AdH: What are Sunshine Digital’s strong points?

G.N.: I like to think that first of all we are humans, not machines. That means the business is not the core of things, we are! Unfortunately this is not a thing that everybody can relate to so I’ll try to be more pragmatic.

First and foremost, the team: we are a team of seniors with over 7 years of marketing and digital experience each.

Secondly, we can really listen, understand and connect with each business that we interact with. From this understanding and connection comes the ability to elaborate digital strategies that are targeted towards best serving our clients’ needs.

Moreover, we are using the latest communication techniques like Gamification or OAO (online audience optimization). Our creative team can deliver state of the art visuals taking into consideration the newest trends in graphics and the development team selects the best tools for each project, trying to reinvent themselves through their work.

AdH: How do you choose your clients? Which are the criteria the clients are taking in consideration when they demand your services?

G.N.: Our business philosophy is to build strong, long lasting relationships. This translates into a portfolio of long-term clients. Our clients are usually people who embrace the same business philosophy as we do.

AdH: Which are the agencies you meet the most in clients’ pitches?

G.N.: I can’t say that we meet some agencies more than others. In this industry, the players are usually the same.

AdH: How much does a good strategy matter within a campaign? What about the digital?

All campaigns need a good strategy and today more than ever you need to integrate the digital environment in all market approaches.

If you analyze things separately, you notice how most of the offline campaigns have a good strategy in place. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same thing about digital campaigns. Most of them are focused on one or two actions and that’s it. In my opinion, the reasons for this approach are budget related.

AdH: As it is the first year of Sunshine, what is your prediction for the end of the year? What turnover and profit do you expect? What do you predict for 2014?

G.N.: I’m really happy how things have evolved in 2013, especially since, as you were saying, it’s our first year. We are reaching a turnover of at least Euro 150.000 only on services (we have almost no media included), with an estimated profit of 10-12%.

I see in 2014 an even better year than 2013. We are adding new brands to our portfolio and we will still be delivering smartly crafted campaigns that can make our clients proud. As a numbers game, I see us exceeding Euro 230.000.

AdH: How big is your team? What are the specialties of team’s members?

G.N.: We are a team of eight beautiful, smart and happy people. 🙂 I’ll give you two examples:

• We have one of the most creative Creative Directors 🙂 He pulls out the most beautiful art and 3D animations.
• The witty and stern control freak is our Project Manager. 7 years of experience have turned him into an invaluable member of our dream-team.

For information about each of us I invite you to access www.sunshinedigital.ro There are more specialists I wish to introduce you to, and I’m sure you will discover all the information you need there. And if not, please feel free to ask us directly 🙂