Costas Papagiannakopoulos
Costas Papagiannakopoulos is most famous for introducing the first and third multinational ad agency in Greece. As a result of his actions, the market in Greece changed completely, advancing into new levels of excellence. New technologies were introduced, as well as new ways of doing business. Furthermore, he was the first professional advertising manager that did not own the company he was working for, as was the norm at the time. For these two reasons, he will always be referenced in advertising and business circles, and he has earned a place in the Greek advertising history, as he is in a great part responsible for creating it!
Advertising Festival in Greece
Costas Papagiannakopoulos is not only responsible for introducing the global way of doing advertising in Greece. His work had a holistic impact in the Greek advertising community. One the early steps he took in modernizing the business was to create the first Advertising Festival in 1973. Despite the difficulties he faced, as he almost had to organize the festival by himself, his determination paid of, and the event was a success. the importance of the festival was that for the first time it offered companies the chance to exchange ideas, create references for future advertising work, and inform clients what each agency was about!
In that first festival, 19 advertising agencies participated, with 74 reels. Most prizes were won by Spot, Adel, Gnomi, and Univas. The festival also had an unconventional committee: the whole audience participated in voting the winners!
The Art of Bost and Advertising
Costas Papagiannakopoulos is a pioneer in many ways. He is a pioneer as a businessman, but as a creative director, as well. His close relationship with a famous Greek artist, Bost, (Bost was married to his sister) enabled him to create two of the most unconventional campaigns ever to be produced in Greece, and that was back in 1959! These campaigns were unconventional in everyway. Their theme was inspired by current (for the time) political and historical subjects. Bost's copy was also full of spelling mistakes, as he wanted to make a point about the pretentious Greeks of the time, who tried to pretend they were "civilized" and "European", when in fact they lacked basic education. Finally, he did something unthinkable for that time: he did not include a single image of the product (pack shot).
Yet, his ads were so effective that the circulation of the newspapers where they appeared doubled during the campaign, and the company who was selling the two products being advertised (Renault Dauphine -car- and Flow-Kote by Dupon -paint) had to stop the campaigns at some point, as it run out of stock! (Bost 1995)
Due to the methods used, and the effectiveness of the campaigns, this initiative of Mr. Papagiannakopoulos is considered a breakthrough in Greek advertising.
