The World: Insider's View - Austria.(Industry overview)

Austria's advertising industry is not doing too badly out of living in the shadow of its economic giant of a neighbour, Thomas Mas writes.

I'll spare you the football references. The sport isn't everything in Austria. We failed to qualify for the World Cup: we're a poor relation to our neighbour, Germany, when it comes to football.

It's tempting to think the same is true when it comes to media.

Germany's proximity means there is a significant media overflow into Austria. German advertising is ubiquitous on Austrian TV and some German advertisers could be accused of thinking about Austria as the 17th German federal state.

But such a view also poses certain dangers. Germany and Austria are two countries separated by their common language, which may well be the reason why German brands such as Mercedes, Audi and BMW have separate agencies in Austria that produce their own advertising. It may also be the reason why all the major German agencies have separate Austrian divisions.

If a German ad runs in Austria, the voiceover will invariably be re-recorded. The cultures are very different, particularly our senses of humour. What Germans regard as funny or creative may be received quite differently in Austria.

Austrian agencies have also had to demonstrate their creativity by producing campaigns with a fraction of the budgets enjoyed by our German cousins.