City SReDA Festival was a major event not only for Ufa

"City SReDA Social Advertising Festival is growing out of the city scale. A record number of works - more than 500 in 9 nominations - has participated in it this year. There are residents of other Russian regions among participants of the competition. Samples of social advertising from republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan also came to the festival - this indicates to the international level of the festival. One of innovations is social advertising in Bashkir. Thus, the festival is going ahead," Marat Gazizov, the author of the festival's concept, the head of the information and analytical department of Ufa administration, said at the press-conference devoted to the opening of City SReDA Social Advertising Festival (SReDA is a Russian abbreviation, which stands for "say yes to social advertising").

Both organizers of the festival and guests of honour participated in the press conference. Apart from Marat Gazizov there were also Rustem Taimasov, director of OOO Image-Consultant and Julia Vorobieva, the head of the advertising department of Raduga Group of Companies. Such famous social advertising specialists, as Gyuzella Nikolaishvili, and Victor Sumarokov were also among the participants.

Gyuzella Nikolaishvili is the associate professor of the subdepartment of advertising theory and practice of the Applied Political Science Department of the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). She is also the head of the Laboratory of Social Advertising, which is the winner of leading Russian and international contests and festivals in social advertising. It is the second time she takes part in City SReDA Social Advertising Festival. Victor Sumarokov is the chairman of the board of the regional department of the Russian Designers' Union, the associate professor of the department of Tula State University, the developer of more than 600 trade marks, the author of the university textbook titled "Projection in graphic design".

"In all Russian cities social advertising is formed on a leftover principle, but it should be bright, memorizable and skilfully made in order not to be excluded by commercials," Victor Sumarokov considers.

For successful positioning on the all-Russian level, he advised our ad makers to make field expositions with the use of modular map-boards and to use Internet recourses. He also proposed to place social advertising not only on street banners and in public transport, but also on advertising spaces of different institutions.

Gyuzella Nikolaishvili made special mention of the high level of the represented works, diversity of themes and creativity. According to her, students have many interesting works, but they are often short of knowledge and skill to bring them to the necessary design and verbal level.

"Not everyone can invent a good slogan," Gyuzella Nikolaishvili states, "This is proved by today's exposition."

Copyright protection was also touched upon at the press conference. It becomes extremely topical, when an idea of a young author after being developed by a professional designer is spreading around and is used by different sources. Of course, it causes resentment. However, copyright protection is a very controversial point even if more serious questions are concerned.

"Social advertising market is still very young. However, the fact that it is already the fifth social advertising festival in Ufa is very significant," Gyuzella Nikolaishvili said in conclusion, "We can only wish the festival to grow and develop and Ufa ad makers to be asked-for and recognized."