EPICA – the festival of European advertisement was founded in 1986. Since 1987, it has been held annually in Paris. The head office is also based in Paris and Andrew Rowlins is the president. The EPICA motto is to leave the country but not Europe, therefore each year, the gala ceremony of the festival is held in different cities across Europe.

ULTRA is a multistage project launched in Georgia. The project involves broadcasting on Channel One; the show of EPICA adverts in Tbilisi in 1999 and in the summer and fall of 2000. Mikho Kochakidze, Giorgi Ebralidze and Zurab Maghalashvili are the authors of the ULTRA project.
MAGTI  GSM also has involvement in the projects – as a general sponsor of the ULTRA program and the EPICA festival in Georgia.

The ULTRA program, Georgian TV and the Georgian TV Film Company were the organizers of the EPICA days.

 It was only recently that just a narrow circle of specialists and interested people, the audience of the ULTRA program, knew of EPICA. But in August-September suddenly everyone became aware of it. It has been a long time since anything like EPICA was held in Georgia, provoking such keen interest. The slogans EPICA-ULTRA-MAGTI GSM were everywhere in newspapers, journals, magazines or radio and television. Perhaps only ads get such advertisement.

The first EPICA day was held in the Cinema House. However prior to this first day there were many hard and difficult weeks of creating, planning and problem solving conceiving the idea itself, searching of ways to carry it out, the first steps and the first success.

Mikho Kochakidze: "In 1994 I was in Moscow with the Rustaveli Theatre which was giving a guest performance. It was there that I came to know Maxim Pliusnin. Last year, I learnt that Max became the EPICA representative in the CIS countries. The idea of launching a similar project came to mind. I got in touch with Max and soon brought him to Tbilisi. We showed commercials in several different locations: in the TMS gallery, in the Cinema House, in the Theatrical Cellar and in the ART cafe. The second stage of the project was to work on a TV program and in March 2000 the first program was aired. The following phase was to arrange a festival within the frames of ULTRA. Giorgi, Zurab and myself - our entire team spared no effort to make it happen.

As far as MAGTI is concerned, the involvement was not merely sponsorship. It turned out to be more of a patronage. The attention needed for introducing novelties is so necessary. MAGTI has given us the opportunity to do something as terrific as this, and I am extremely grateful..."
The first day started with a press conference and continued on a very tight schedule. In three days, sixteen lectures were delivered with demonstrations of footage. Accreditation for participants was largely symbolic. A great number of people gathered at the Cinema House on the first day of the festival, among whom were "our local" producers of advertising, the media representatives and those who know the value of real advertising. Amongst the foreign guests was the EPICA president, Andrew Rowlins himself. Maxim Pliusnin, the EPICA representative in the CIS countries also arrived. Among other participants was the director of the Advertising Museum of Russia, Sergey Cherednichenko who displayed exhibits from the series of "Commercial advertising in Russia from the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century" in the "Tbilcreditbank" gallery. It is the intention of the ULTRA authors to create a similar museum in Georgia.

During the three days of the festival, the hall was incessantly crowded with people. If you failed to get there half an hour early, it would be impossible to get in, especially when the commercials were shown. At one point, when a particular commercial was shown, the entire audience roared with laughter. One of the spectators was laughing so boisterously and crying with laughter to such extent that Andrew Rowlins had the same commercial repeated twice. During the EPICA days Georgian commercials were also shown...

Mikho Kochakidze: "During the three days up to 500 advert rolls were shown. Rowlins was extremely satisfied, firstly, with the taste of the Georgian audience and secondly, with the level of Georgian commercials.  He was also impressed with the general business approach and serious attitude of the Georgian side. We had no winners.  We presented eleven promotional certificates to the authors of the best Georgian adverts. All of the eleven adverts were sent to the Kiev International Festival where seven won first place. Three adverts will take part in EPICA. One of them, a winner at the Kiev festival is Giorgi Ebralidze's "Kvevrebi", which is the MAGTI GSM advert produced by Neostudio."

Nearly all types of commercials except for audio commercials were presented in the Cinema House, including video commercials, polygraphy and exterior ads. As for the forthcoming year, it has been decided that audio commercials will be included. The categories of commercials started with foodstuffs and ended with medical equipment, and included a complete collection of the best of  EPICA. Those who have followed the development of advertising know that the quality of commercials, their content and rhythm have changed drastically. The 99-year collection is distinguished for its sense of humour, enormous information and sophisticated technique. The EPICA jury of the competition are only from the advert publishers which ensures that EPICA stays absolutely unbiased and enjoys a high international standing.

There is nothing new any more in "this place under the sky", only form may be new. They say that the first important thing for a commercial is the idea, then its proficient execution and finally, a well-planned promotional campaign. There is no lack of ideas in Georgia, but the advertisement market has not yet been properly established, neither has the legislative framework, causing many problems to occur.

Mikho Kochakidze: "Currently we are in the process of negotiation with foreign partners regarding the opening of a school of design and advertising in Georgia, also jointly holding of master classes and seminars. The attitude of the client should be changed and quality commercials should be promoted. This is the purpose of my program. In the contemporary world advertising is perceived as art. It covers everything: literature, music and cinema. A scriptwriter, a film director, a composer, an actor, a cameraman and a painter work hand in hand, delivering a high quality product when all of these units are fine-tuned."

The closing of the EPICA days was held in the "Tbilcreditbank" building. There were many guests and the atmosphere was extraordinary. There were discussions of future plans and a general feeling of a job well done.

Last year the EPICA gala ceremony was hosted by Dublin. The authors of ULTRA say that the day will come when this ceremony will be held in Tbilisi. Until then, however, already in 2001 Tbilisi will host its own international advertising festival ULTRA.