Miercuri, 26 iunie 2013  18:30 – Luni, 15 iulie 2013

Institut Culturel Roumain
1, rue de l’Exposition 75007 Paris

Discover the mania in Ro+Mania
Un proiect The Happyholic

Vernisaj miercuri 26 iunie, orele 18:30.

Expozitie de printuri publicitare

&

Masa rotunda Branding Romania – campanii de publicitate cu componenta de imagine pentru România
Cine ce face pentru imaginea de tara a României ?
Care sunt campaniile de publicitate existente ?
Ce aport poate avea lumea publicitatii in crearea unei strategii de imagine pentru România ?

Pe cate intrebari, pe atatea raspunsuri !

Participanti :
Nick BAUM (TBWA Worldwide)
Mihai GONGU (GMP Advertising www.gmp.ro)
Yvette LARSSON (The Bucharest Lounge http://bucharestlounge.wordpress.com)
Ioana MIHAI (IQads www.iqads.ro)
Ioana NEGULESCU (The Happyholic)

As we are all aware of it, Romania is a country that has a questionable reputation abroad. Yet, when foreigners decide to visit this country, they fall in love with it. And then comes the question – how could we promote Romania in some ways that could also influence the mentalities and bring tourists to this country?

So far there have been several campaigns to promote Romania, but most of them only promote the raw nature which one finds once they get out of the big cities. Nevertheless Romania is in a continuous urbanization process, the young generations move to big cities like Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara and Iasi to do their studies and work. And those cities are the places that grow day by day.

Young foreigners who have the opportunity to come to Romania usually have a great time there. They like the nightlife, the cheap prices, the genuinely human and friendly attitude of Romanian people. They are the ones who then go back to their countries and talk to their friends about their experience in Romania. They are the ones who change mentalities with their stories. Yet, until now, they have never been the target audience of any campaign to promote this country. Romania hasn’t been promoted as a low-budget, entertaining and cool holiday destination.

The Mania of RO+MANIA speaks to young foreigners who look for a holiday destination that’s different from what they’ve seen before sincerely, with a witty humour. It talks about the fact that Romania is an eclectic country, full of inequalities, which, in the end we can turn into its advantage.

 

 

The Happyholic (a.k.a. Ioana Negulescu) is a graphic designer with butterflies in her stomach, passionate for copywriting and happiness fanatic. After she completed the Lycee Francais Anna de Noailles de Bucarest with distinction in Sciences, she went to study Graphic Design and Marketing in the UK where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Her final project for University was her very first dream come true – to organize her first exhibition. “Happiness is not listed on the Stock Market” is the name of her project and it was her first encounter with the world of copywriting combined with “home-made” graphic design.

She then continued with a series of Russian Dolls inspired from pop culture.

After University she came back to Romania hoping she would be able to make a positive change in her country and the multicultural environment in which she has lived all her life gave her the motivation to promote her country abroad, to try to change at least a bit the already corrupted by the media mentalities of foreigners. In November of 2012 she opened the Facebook page Romanianology (http://facebook.com/romanianology) where, apart from a series of collages with the literal and word by word translation of Romanian idioms into English, she is trying to promote the real Romanian values as much as she can, talking sincerely and trying to be realistic.

Until recently her biggest dream has been to hold her second exhibition in Paris, where she desired to showcase an entire campaign that promotes Romania, the first campaign of this kind to be done by a single person and not an agency.

“Discover the Mania in RO+MANIA” is a campaign that promotes aspects of Romania that haven’t been approached yet. She chose to talk to young people, using a tone of voice that they would understand and would appreciate, with sincerity and wit, about a different kind of Romania – a Romania that’s for the first time a “cool” destination, where young people can have a great time, can meet genuinely friendly people, can discover the nightlife and get in contact with Romanians’ joie-de-vivre.

Her work can be seen on www.thehappyholic.com