Kruk S.A.

KRUK, Poland’s largest debt collection company, starts another stage of its TV campaign whose purpose is to make people with debts realise that it is a good idea to talk about their debts, sign an agreement and gradually get out of debt. The TV campaign will be reinforced by a cycle of press articles in women’s magazines and in tabloids and, what is a complete novelty, by product/idea placement in one of Poland’s most popular TV series. What is more, a similar campaign will also be inaugurated today in Romania. It will be the first such campaign in Romania conducted by a receivables management company.

“We have been consistently using the media in our communication with people with debts,” says Iwona Słomska, Member of the Board of KRUK SA. “The above channel helps remove the negative stereotypes associated with debt and with contacts with debt collection companies. As a result, debtors are becoming increasingly more willing to search for realistic ways of paying off their debts. This time, apart from a TV spot, a message encouraging debtors to actively look for ways to solve their debt problems will be published in the most popular dailies and magazines. Also, the characters of the M jak Miłość TV series will be dealing with the debt problem. The above placement of the idea of dealing with debt in a highly popular TV series is a complete novelty not only in Poland.”

For the last four years, the KRUK Group has also been present on the Romanian market where it currently is one of the leading players. The growing number of debtors serviced made the parent company decide to launch the first in history TV information campaign targeted at people with debts also in Romania. Research showed that the advertising film which was previously broadcast in Poland also ideally suits the Romanian reality. The story told in the spot is very well understood and accepted by Romanian debtors. It is not a big surprise, because, considering historical and social aspects, Poles and Romanians are not very different.

“The political and social situation of Poland and of Romania is very similar and hence the similarities in the functioning of households or in the mentality of people,” explains psychologist Katarzyna Korpolewska.  “What we have in common is the lack of experience (e.g. passed on from generation to generation) concerning bank loans, etc.; expectations that the state will solve our problems (learned social helplessness); lack of basic economic and legal knowledge, sense of injustice (in the historical context) and the associated proneness to escaping from problems.”

In both countries, apart from advertising spots, in the period from September to December, an educational cycle is planned to be published in lifestyle magazines, regional press and in tabloids. In Poland they will include TeleTydzień, Tina, Życie na gorąco, Pani Domu, Naj, Kobieta i Życie, Fakt, Super Express. The message will reach a total of 10 million readers. At the same time, press publications will be accompanied by product/idea placements in M jak Miłość, one of Poland’s most popular TV series (audience of 7.4 million). The press publications and the mailing campaigns targeted at debtors serviced by the KRUK Group will feature the main characters of the TV series played by Teresa Lipowska and Witold Pyrkosz.

The Brand Connection media house is responsible for media planning both in Poland and in Romania. In Poland, the spots will be shown on the most popular TV channels: TVP, TVN and Polsat. The spot will be targeted at 37 million viewers. The advertising spot used in the campaign is the Sąsiadka (Neighbour) spot that has proved itself very well in the previous stages of the campaign. The film was produced by the Division Film Studio, its creative concept was prepared by the ARRS Effectica agency and it was directed by Konrad Aksinowicz. The same spot (dubbed) will be used by KRUK in a parallel advertising campaign in Romania.