Sofia, May 20th, 2020

With a successful track record of more than 15 years, Newtrend Agency is an award-winning marketing agency with offices in Varna, Sofia and London.

The agency delivers a tailor-made customer experience, building emotional bonds through a mix of technology, design and advertising. Its services include web design, social media management, marketing strategy and crisis marketing, among other areas.

Newtrend Agency distinguishes by the long-term and loyal relationship with the businesses it serves – 80% of them have been working with the agency for more than 7 years.

Ivelina Atanasova – Genchev founded the agency and is now its strategic leader. In an interview with TIA, she looked at the growth seen by the agency since it started and at the challenges ahead.

What makes Sofia an attractive city?

Sofia is a welcoming city, standing out among the European capitals, but still only 3-hours away by flight. It’s a city with an ancient history and culture, young and talented population, dynamic lifestyle and artistic evenings that offers great work – life balance.

From a business perspective, we boast one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU, a high level of broadband connectivity adoption and one of the highest average broadband connection speeds in Europe.

Sofia is a great ICT test market and offers good conditions for the development of services of the digital and sharing economy. It has the third-highest number of start-ups in Europe, with 90% of them in the ICT sector.

Sofia has a well-developed recruitment base of highly skilled employees, especially in the ICT sector and the creative industries – there are 23 universities, over 100 000 students, 63 research centers and 20+ independent software schools within the city.

And, crucially, Sofia is a great place for women in technology. While women are still underrepresented in ICT, Bulgaria has the highest share of women in the sector for the whole of the EU—just over 31%, according to the most recent figures from Eurostat.

How’s the team holding together since the epidemic started in China?

All of us work remotely, but it’s nothing new to us. Newtrend Agency manages offices in Sofia, Varna and London and we enjoy nature a lot. Also, I’ve always dreamed about a workplace that makes people feel home, inspires and provokes the creative instincts of the people and helps them keep a healthy work-life balance, which is really hard when working as a consultant in a digital business, where speed and (time) flexibility are a must.

“There is nothing impossible when you dream it” is the motto of my life and I’ve created Newtrend Agency 15 years ago. People would say that we are a child-friendly agency, but I’ll say, we’re a human-centric agency.

Most of the people in the agency are women, mothers and wives. They have to take care of sick children or visit parent-teacher meetings, plan family holidays and coordinate the never-ending challenges at work. So, few years ago we transferred the whole office to the cloud and to work remotely at any point in time. So we have home office in August, possibly working on the beach, or enjoy skiing in December for the Christmas holidays. We try to cope with the stress related to tight marketing deadlines by enjoying the outdoor activities for which Bulgaria offers a perfect setting.

The COVID-19 pandemic confirmed my conviction that the digital transformation is not a luxury, but a prerequisite for the survival of any business in the digital age we live in.

Are there any challenges which are difficult facing due to COVID-19?

No enterprise particularly likes changes, but digital transformation requires them. It requires financial resources, time, people and management support.

As a strategic marketing agency, we advise all our clients to plan their digital transformation beyond a well-designed website and social media management. The digital transformation is a new way of thinking and doing business. It requires digital strategy or a list that includes how to digitally redesign the company’s products and/or services, building a company ecosystem and connectivity between the in-house data and the cloud. Cybersecurity. Innovations, incl. AI, 3D printing, marketing automation, blockchain etc.

The virus validated threats we’ve been prognosing for a few years and speeded up the transformation. I hope businesses will take them seriously and will use the COVID-19 as an advantage. In Newtrend we launched marketing transformation packages that include:

– Emergency package: helps businesses quickly retune their sales processes, change priorities and communication strategy, minimize financial losses.

-An overcoming brain blockage package, incl. a workshop that supports companies to overcome the “brain blockages” of their teams and increase their productivity.

-Master Level Change Management Service, which is suitable for medium-sized businesses and companies looking to understand the change and plan their annual crisis marketing plan. This package enables the inclusion of individual services according to the focus and needs of the company and offers a deep economic analysis of the challenges that a specific business niche (and business-related) will overcome with recommendations for marketing and communication strategy adaptation. It’s possible to be prepared for all the threats and challenges that business may face, but it’s obligatory to be prepared for the obvious.

Please tell us about your personal journey

My professional experience began even before I finished school – at the age of 15 I started working in the tourism industry during summer holidays. For a long time, I was involved in marketing communication and customer service, before I found my true passion – innovation and digital strategy, launching Newtrend Agency.

The marketing agency has a successful track record of more than 15 years and the opportunity to work with global organizations that open their first offices in Central or Eastern Europe and choose our team as their go-to-market partner, subcontractor or directly to outsource their marketing activities in Sofia, while staying focused on business development and sales.

All of our clients report a 30% improvement in financial results after their first year of working with us. Newtrend Agency is member of British – Bulgarian Business Association and marketing service provider to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Over the years, I have changed my occupation from a marketing consultant to a serial entrepreneur who divides her time between business and social work, and my personal biography has been enriched with John Atanasoff President Award Recognition for particularly high public contribution in the field of Computer Science and Woman of the 2016 Year Award, HiTech & Innovation category. But I have never thought I would start my own award-winning company in the traditionally male-dominated sphere of technology.

Nobody can escape theirselves. If I can give any advice to the next generation of female leaders, it would be – do not overthink. There is nothing certain in this life and no one can guarantee us success. Do your best and enjoy life, because it’s too short. Be happy with what you create and the person you are. Follow your passion and be proud of yourself.

Each morning I wake up with a smile and appreciate my personal “super-powers” that help me support people to develop their business, take care of their families and make our world a better place to live.

Of the recent projects Newtrend Agency has produced, which one are you’re most proud of?

It’s the DigitalKidZ: “Open Source School” global initiative, which mission is a better, equal quality and free education for each child according to the 21st century competences.

DigitalKidZ started six years ago as a corporate social responsibly project of Newtrend Agency, but today there is a non-government organization that manages all its projects and initiatives.

The brand includes an annual TechEdu conference, supported by the Ministry of Education and the Euroepan Commission in Bulgaria, a variety of educational games that develop the Emotional Intelligence a.ka EQ and digital literacy, online tutorials for parents and story books for children, that are well known and loved all over the Europe.

Just few months ago, DigitalKidZ was awarded amongst the best political projects in Europe by Innovation in Politics Awards.

How do you guarantee innovation at the agency?

Innovation is a mindset. You have to be creative and innovative in order to encourage it. As I believe that the 21st century will be known in the history as the “digital age”, digitalization and digital transformation is a way of survival for any business in this time.

I’ve always loved “digital” even before it was as trendy as now, but it’s really hard to navigate through it, because of the great choice that digital delivers daily.

In the beginning of my personal journey and in the early years of the agency, I launched an online media about digital. Within few years it was awarded as the best online media of Bulgaria, ahead of the websites of the country’s main TV news networks. The biggest benefit of this experiment was not the recognition, but the opportunity to meet and learn from some of the world’s greatest minds, who we interviewed and followed.

Not it’s the same with AI, the data-driven economy and digital transformation. Digital is not anymore a nice website and consistent social media approach.

COVID-19 accelerated the “happening” of the technological future. The accelerated technological progress, virtual reality, the easy worldwide logistics and movement of people and goods, virtual communication and the globalization of local economies, require flexibility, adaptability and life-long learning.

It will affect education, which is one of the causes of Newtrend Agency, as we mentioned already, and the way of doing business. Because these are tightly connected.

How did you come up with the DigitalKidZ® Foundation?

It was my son. When he started school I used to teach him all the training & coaching methods that I use in my consulting praxis to help him learn more easily, more effectively and more in line with contemporary realities. Digital literacy and digital devices have always been a tool to learn more as Bulgaria’s school system still has to catch up with contemporary trends.

Until very recently, perhaps just before the COVID-19 pandemic digital devices were forbidden at school and locked before the classes. Bulgaria ranks near the bottom of European education systems ratings. It is at the very bottom in terms of share of 16 to 25-year-olds who are not in school and not at work. Each year, between 15- and 18 000 children drop out of school. Outdated educational methods and tools are among the reasons for this worrying development.

I’ve always believed that this can be changed and it’s wrong to keep the modern educational tools as mind mapping, coding, mastermind sessions, project-based learning, design thinking, coaching and many, many more only for adults. Based on my professional experience with them, within the business trainings and consulting, I’ve developed a teaching methodology for children. It’s gamified to attract the attention and increase their learning motivation and following the main principle of work of Newtrend Agency, we delivered tailor-made education plan for each child within the group. Once I shared the methodology that I use to teach my son in the after-school classes, a lot of parents and teachers wanted to use it too, so we started an initiative.

Is there a question you wish people would ask you more often?

I prefer to not ask me so often “how is this possible”?

Yes, it’s possible to be a single mother, to manage a marketing agency and to create a global awarded educational initiative.
Yes, it’s possible to be a successful female manager of a male IT team.
Yes, it’s possible to consult male dominated companies with a female dominated team.

When you know your “super-power” and you’re not afraid to use it, neither to experiment, neither to be afraid of the unknown, everything may be possible. You just have to make the first step and to believe in yourself.

And, yes, I prefer to ask me more often “WHEN, we’ll do it” instead of “WHY should we do this”.

What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?

Be yourself and don’t be ashamed that you could be better than any male. It’s not a matter of sex, neither experience. It could be talent, it could be courage, it could be “the right time” or just a coincidence, no matter what’s the reason, you are as good as you dare to be, and you deserve the best. So, please, be deaf to anybody who advises you that something is impossible or does not believe in your dreams and your plans.

How has your life story shaped the person you are today?

I started my career quite young, which gave me the opportunity to experiment with different jobs and responsibilities and to choose my university education, while developing my career. It’s a great chance. At the age of 20 I had already five years of experience, well developed network and an opportunity to work with people from all around the world. At the age of 30 I was awarded more than any woman in Tech in my country and I managed a well-coordinated team of experts, each of them with 15+ work experience. I hope that my upcoming 40s will be the best.

Thanks Ivelina!

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