Romanian advertising reached a new peak last year increasing to approximately 3.72 billion euros.

Advertising is one of Romania's most dynamic sectors at present. This is confirmed not only by the registered figures in terms of market value, but also by the fast rate at which new agencies are opening. "Established" agencies are diversifying their services or becoming affiliates to the world's leading communication networks.

The market reached a record high last year, of around 3.72 billion euros, up 29% compared with 2005.

These values account for gross investments in advertising on the traditional media channels (television, radio and the printed press), according to the Alfacont monitoring.

Considering investments made separately for channels, the biggest growth rate against 2005 was registered by the radio channel, with 48% more capital being invested last year.

Television drew the highest amount of gross investments (89.3% of the total, that is 3.32 billion euros). The printed press ranked second, with 8.5% (almost 317 million euros) of the overall rate-card investments. Radio stations got 2.2% of the total amount.

Considering gross sums invested in advertising, the top five advertisers in January-December 2006 were Procter & Gamble (228.79 million euros), Unilever (139.63 million euros), European Drinks & European Food (119.12 million euros), L'Or?al Romania (115.09 million euros) and Kraft Foods Romania (103.88 million euros).

Cosmetics and personal care products hold the leading position in the top categories of promoted products, with investments of 525 million euros (14.1% of the total). Second came telecommunications services (331.55 million euro gross investments, 8.9% of the total).

Alcoholic drinks ranked third (305.92 million euros, 8.2%), while the fourth position was filled by household chemical prod