Cristian Ramboiu, MiB: In 2009, we were 10 fighting to survive crisis; now we’re 270

Romanian Men in Black agency recently announced a brand refreshment, which included assuming a new visual identity and a new logo in order to reflect the new realities of the agency. About the rebranding and what are Men In Black’s plans for the future, AdHugger spoke with Cristian Ramboiu, Managing Director Men in Black

 

AdHugger: How did your agency change during the last 5 years?  

Cristian Ramboiu: The agency grew a lot these past years, we became grown-ups as we say. Back in 2009, we were struggling to survive, trying to avoid the KO from the crisis. But we turned the moment into our favor – in 2009, we were 10 people based in Bucharest and several collaborators in the country. Now we count 270 people in our team. All divisions developed a lot; now we have logistics, production and acquisitions, human resources, bigger creative department. We focus a lot on the field part – project supervision, flawless implementation. We moved into a new building three times bigger, we allocate a lot of attention to logistics, we have our own transportation facility, storehouses in Bucharest and in the main cities in the country.

Talking about clients, they were not a constant parameter back in 2009; we were rather dealing with projects… It was then that we started to work on “loyalisation” and on setting the business on a solid base which is strong until today. We are proud of having partnerships with important clients, partnerships that we started in that delicate period; and this stability is a consequence of our efforts in the process of self improvement.

AdH: How does Men in Black position itself on the market right now and why the change?

C.R.: The change comes from within, it has nothing to do with the market. When we started the business, we felt the need to tell where we were coming from (coming from below the line). We changed naturally, we evolved, we became adults. And now we feel the need to tell how we are, first and foremost to ourselves and then we want to be seen like that. We position ourselves as a trustful partner who takes good care of your projects so that you can get rid of all worries related to them.

AdH: Tell us more please about the new headline: “there, taking care”. 

C.R.: We are now an organization in full meaning – we are not only here, in Bucharest, in the office, but also there, in the field, where our projects are implemented. We have all the dimensions/divisions and full capacity to take care of all aspects of our projects, so that our clients are completely stress free.

AdH: What is your competition on the market at this time? Do you offer differently and more?

C.R.: Lately, the competition has diversified which is very challenging. For instance, an event can be carried out by a travel agency as well as by a technical equipment provider or a club. Our strategy is to look carefully in our yard and administrate our forces as well as possible so that our offer meets exactly the clients’ requests. We invest less in pitches and more in satisfying our clients – there, taking care.

AdH: Are the 3 managers that started the company still involved in its activity or not? What are their roles now?

C.R.: They are very much involved in different aspects of the company; their role is more strategic than execution related.

AdH: Where do you wanna see the company in the next 3 years? What are your main goals?

C.R.: I wouldn’t call them “goals”, but rather wishes. Wishes for business development and wishes to get specialized and become better and better at what we do. In the same time, we are focused on translating our new positioning into facts. We are a fair-play company firstly to ourselves and it’s important to keep showing that what we say is what we do. So what we wish for the next 3 years is to be seen as that partner that clients would choose because he will be relieved from stress. Of course, we wish for a wider client portfolio, but if we keep the existing ones for the next 3 years, it would be a great achievement.

AdH: What does creativity in BTL mean to you and why?

C.R.: Creativity means drawing attention, being different, step out from the line. With every project, we strive to bring something new, something creative. We believe in being different and in creative projects and we love working on that. Nevertheless, our focus remains the care for the project by flawless implementations.