OREANDA-NEWS. February 20, 2013. CTC Media, Inc. (“CTC Media” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, has announced plans to hold the “Content 360” cross media projects competition as part of the MIPTV spring TV market, which will be held in Cannes on April 8-11, 2013. CTC Media will organize the contest, along with advertising agency Ailove and a leading Russia and CIS mobile operator MTS. This is the first time such a competition will be run by Russian companies and the first time concepts for the Russian market will be selected from a competition of this scale, reported the press-centre of CTC Media.

Any Russian or international production company, advertising agency or independent entity can submit an application to take part in the event. Applications will be accepted until February 24, 2013 and participation is free. A jury comprising CTC Media, Ailove and MTS representatives will pick five finalists by March 18, 2013. All the finalists will be invited to Cannes to present their projects on April 8, when the winner will be chosen. The winner will receive a prize of 5,000 euros and the opportunity to bring their idea into fruition with the help of the competition’s organizers in the form of an MTS advertising campaign.

Yulia Mitrovich, CTC Media Chief Strategy and Digital Media Officer: “It is very important for us to be innovators in everything we do, but especially in digital media, as very few segments rival it in terms of dynamics and development potential. Transmedia projects have already been around for a while abroad, but they are just beginning to emerge on the Russian market. We have already done a lot to develop this segment, but we plan to do a lot more to ensure that the development of this sector in Russia is linked with our company”.

Anna-Maria Treneva, CTC Media Head of Digital Media: “CTC Media is the cross media leader in Russia. We were the first to launch a transmedia project, “Real Love”, and were so encouraged by its success that we decided to look for ideas for our next project further afield. We are looking for bright and unusual ideas that can seamlessly combine a diverse range of communications channels and content delivery to the end user, whether it be TV, online video, mobile internet, games or other methods – it is only limited by the imagination of participants!”

Oleg Zhdanov, Ailove CEO: “The transmedia market in Russia is still in its infancy, and the complexity of planning these campaigns is the main obstacle for its development. Not only does high-quality content need to be created, but it also needs to be delivered to “quality” (from the point of view of the brand’s goals) target audiences. The same old formats continue to be used given the lack of fresh ideas. The international competition will give us the opportunity to see how our colleagues go about solving this problem and to bring changes back to our market, which is already prepared for an effective synergy between internet and TV”.

Yaroslav Smirnov, MTS Head of Mobile Internet Marketing Communications, VAS & Financial Products: “For a long time now, audience has been able unconsciously but quite strictly to filter information, especially advertising, and it is already accustomed to fragmented media consumption. The most valuable thing in this market is not time or even money, but the audience’s attention. This should come first. You can no longer purchase attention with just a huge media presence, you need genuine human interest, which is almost impossible to grab without a good story. Transmedia projects allow us to do this. We already have experience in successfully carrying out such project and we are a great believer in them”.

You can find more detailed information on the competition terms and conditions here: http://www.mipcube.com/competitions/content-360/