thirdPretty Margalit, CEO Government Advertising Bureau, I don't really like using so-called "presenters" to advertise what our government wants to sell us. Products that we have no choice but to use anyway, like the new banknotes, for example.
Margalit's feeling that using talent indicates "not cracking the brief" is quite ironic, since recently most of the criticism leveled at LPM has been about campaigns - which are very expensive - led by celebrities, who are paid generously.
Thus, Noa Tishbi led a campaign for the Ministry of Tourism, Dov Navon starred as a complaining critic in a campaign by the Ministry of Interior that sought to increase the percentage of participation in local elections, and now criticism is being directed against the use of actor Alon Aboutbol, who received 180,000 shekels for the campaign to introduce the new banknotes. The same Aboutbol, who has no longer lived in Israel at all in recent years and is trying his luck in Hollywood, where the 50-dollar bills are also green, but look completely different.
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""If he were to win an Oscar tomorrow, everyone would immediately mention how Israeli he is," Margalit says of the criticism. "There are cases where talent solves a problem. Alon Aboutbol broadcasts something warm, Israeli, and at eye level, and money is perceived as something false. Technical. We wanted to warm it up and present it with humanity.".
- And what about the salary?
- Can you understand why a government agency is expected not to bring the desired solution to Talent?
""What do they want us to do, Geva Diaries? Carmel Diaries? On the one hand, they say, 'Look at the LPM - the Histadrut, gray, boring,' but when you do things with creative that generate interest, they say, 'Go back to the black-and-white days with narration in clean Hebrew.' The situation is also problematic because our clients are government ministries where some of the ministers, CEOs, media consultants and spokespeople are young, so what do they want us to do for them - Dudu tells Golo? They want to be expressed. Branding awareness in offices is much higher than before.".
Margalit, 53, has been at the helm of the PM for two and a half years, and it seems that the flames have never been as high as during the current government. It seems that its members understand very well that every reform requires a logo, and every minor service requires aggressive marketing. Budgets are growing and hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing to the media from the establishment, through only one channel - the one that Margalit manages.
He is a man of long-term relationships. He spent ten years at Clubmarket, which was the third-largest retail chain, until a year before the chain collapsed, he moved from the position of VP of Marketing to the advertising industry. First, to the sectoral field, which was considered less glamorous and far from the spotlight. He teamed up with Adler Chomsky to establish "Trio," a specialized firm that provided solutions for three sectors: the Russian, the Arab, and the Haredi. When the firm was sold, in late 2011, he crossed the lines into the government market, when he competed for and won the tender for the position of CEO of PM.
""In the public market, there is a lot of respect for the private market. It is looked at as something glamorous. Even overestimated," says Margalit. "I came here with a slightly superior view, but suddenly I met people who told me, 'We are no less talented than others. We may make less money, but quality of life and stability are important to us.' In Clubmarket, anyone who would go home at 6 p.m. would be asked, as if jokingly, if he had switched to part-time work. So maybe I haven't changed in terms of the number of hours I work, but here I was educated and I understand people who made a different decision.".
- And what do you think about private advertising agencies today?
""In my eyes, they are slave ships. When my daughter wanted to go work in an advertising agency, I told her, 'Over my dead body.' They are demanding places that harm personal life, people's ability to find partners, start a family and take care of it.".
""It's a thankless industry, one that you don't feel drawn into, and I appreciate the people here who thought and chose differently. It gave me a lot of balance and thinking about other things besides working 12 hours a day.".
The full article - in "Firma" magazine"
