Lubomir Alamanov  

Managing partner

SiteMedia Consultancy 
Sofia

“Never be afraid to try something new, and never stop dreaming about the stars”

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Arch-networker and prominent Bulgarian PR figure Lubomir Alamanov is well-known in the local comms industry for developing and implementing new services and fields of work. He was one of the first practitioners in the country, for instance, to recognise the importance of employer branding and joint campaigns with HR professionals; a year later, almost every agency in Bulgaria had an employer branding offer. He’s now working on a new idea whereby the brand/company and its audiences are merged into one community: an offer he calls “community branding”. He has led communications projects for clients including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, HP, Telenor, Lidl, Nestle, Siemens and National Geographic, as well as being involved in a number of political campaigns.

How do you define innovation?
Pushing the margins beyond today's borders. Find new ideas, new services, new approaches to get people to communicate and understand each other.

What is the most innovative comms/marketing initiative you've seen in the last 12 months?
Community relations from the communications team for World of Warcraft (a Blizzard brand). They literally blew the whole community away with unexpected new content of the game expansion Battle for Azeroth. And after attracting interest, calmed everybody down and gave us nice new places for exploration.

Describe a moment in your career that you would consider 'innovative.'
When we started SiteMedia Consultancy three years ago, we had to choose a development strategy. We could have become an ordinary agency. Like the rest. But we chose to try a new approach, to risk with new services on the market, to enlarge the limits of communications. This was a turning point in our careers. A new beginning for the whole market.

Who do you admire for his/her approach to innovation? 
My admiration goes to sci-fi authors. Their imagination goes to the stars. Innovation is everyday life to them. The same is true for the guys in NASA. They really have to work with innovations every day.

How do you get out of a creativity rut?
Changing places, going out with friends, books and movies that makes me dream for the stars.

What advice would you give to the PR industry around embracing innovation?
Never be afraid to try something new, and never stop dreaming about the stars.

What would you be doing if you weren't doing your current job?
Information analysis.

Favorite book/movie/podcast/article that's not related to PR/marketing/business?
Star Wars; Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series of science fiction books.

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