Work we are
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In November 2023, Ukraine celebrated the 10th anniversary of the start of the Revolution of Dignity – an event that significantly influenced the country’s development trajectory.

However, even after 10 years and a full-scale invasion there is still a barrier of misunderstanding between Ukrainians and Europeans. On one hand, most EU citizens agree with the statement that “Ukraine should join the EU when ready.” At the same time, russian propaganda portrays Ukraine as an incapable state and works to sow division within the EU.

A step towards overcoming this barrier of mutual understanding was to be a joint symbolic communication campaign that through the example of the Revolution of Dignity would demonstrate that Ukrainians feel and share European values. Given the tendency to avoid news about Ukraine in Germany, especially negative ones, the campaign aimed to facilitate the publication of quality materials that would reveal context and convey embedded messages.

Since Europeans do not completely believe that they are similar with Ukrainians, perhaps it is worth communicating our common values through the universal language of humanity. It sounds “right” and is understood in various social contexts worldwide. And that language is music.

During the Revolution of Dignity music united, supported, and inspired. Blue and yellow piano “Ukraine” not only served as a musical instrument but also became a physical and symbolic barrier between forces and peaceful protesters. Considering the deep symbolism of the piano the Publicis Ukraine and MSL Ukraine team proposed to create a cultural event alongside another symbolic monument, but for Germans, the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

The culmination of the event was the performance of the EU anthem “Ode to Joy,” in a four-hand rendition as a poignant symbol of Ukraine’s inevitable accession to the European family.

The campaign generated over 50 publications in leading German media, including online, print, and 11 features on major TV channels. The total non-unique publication coverage exceeded 486,100,000, with unique coverage reaching 40,500,000 — all without any media investments. Additionally, the event served as a platform for conveying important messages by official figures.

The celebration of Kyivstar’s 25th anniversary was supposed to be the highlight of 2022. However, due to the war, traditional approaches to business and media planning no longer worked.

In the realities of full-scale war, Kyivstar reduced its media budgets by 30%. Consumer behavior changed, but the positioning of the brand “Human Connection” became even more relevant. The campaign for a new tariff for the 25th anniversary with the option of donations for the army was launched as a special crisis solution in wartime to save the lives of Ukrainian defenders and literally restore human connections in the de-occupied cities. The key challenge was optimizing the media support of the campaign.

The basis of the planning was Big Data from previous campaigns. Based on this, we created a new approach to planning, using econometric attribution modeling of users’ actual actions. Our data-driven strategy led to a significant shift in the TV and digital media split from 70/30 to a more effective 35/65. We managed to identify the most influential communication methods, thus increasing the amount of direct communication (SMS, push notifications, etc.) and additionally the share of display components in digital tools due to its economic efficiency and higher conversion rates in donation activations.

For continuous tracking of results and accuracy, we created live dashboards.

Results:

x2.5 Activation of the superpower “Helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine”

+20 p.p. Contribution to the restoration of Ukraine

+4 p.p. Brand connection

+4 p.p. Market leadership in mobile communications

The “Finance” category was rapidly declining, and the client set an ambitious goal – to increase website traffic from organic search by 80%, to increase the number of applications for the top 6 products by at least 2 times (+100%), and to increase the average monthly revenue per consumer of these products by at least 20% in the category.

We predicted the formation of pent-up demand in this category and, using AI technology, discovered the opportunity to cover a wider range of search queries to attract more potential clients.

We planned an unconventional SEO tactic “To search as they search” – create a website specifically for service consumers and optimize it based on how they search. It worked wonders in scaling PrivatBank’s presence in organic search results.

We conducted a detailed analysis of search queries based on the principle of “search as they search,” created new pages on the website according to them, generated ideas for relevant content using AI, and promoted these pages using links.

We exceeded the website traffic goal by 89% and the application submissions for the top 6 products by 96%, but more importantly – we increased the average revenue from the top 6 products by 28%, surpassing the average annual inflation rates in Ukraine.

In Ukraine, Pride events do not have a long history. COVID-19 in 2020 made it even more difficult, as all Pride events were canceled and switched to online, which reduced the audience dramatically. Online involves only LGBTQ+ activists. Offline Pride events are a moment of visibility for a wide audience. KyivPride and Saatchi & Saatchi had a difficult task – during a pandemic they needed a campaign that spread online Pride events across the country.

We hacked the tallest European statue, the iconic Motherland Monument, with the help of drones and the Dronarium Ukraine team we attached a huge rainbow flag to its sword in real-time. The statue’s symbolism was transformed – from the protection of Soviet values to human rights protection and raising awareness of gender equality. It was an upside-down shift in symbolism that immediately resonated with society.

The task was to make our Pride event visible in Kyiv during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. But our stunt made Kyiv’s Pride visible all over the world with more than 100 million impressions in the first three days. The Motherland Monument stunt was recognized as the EVENT OF THE YEAR in Ukraine & Eastern Europe.

The Motherland Pride won several awards in the biggest world festivals on creativity and efficiency, such as Effie Awards Ukraine 2021, Cannes Lions 2021 and 2022, Andy Awards 2021, Golden Drum 2021, AD Stars 2021, D&D 2022, and The One Show 2022.

Pa-pa-pa pa-pam pa-pa-pam pa-pa-pam… Where did it come from? This music fills the city… This music fills with sense!..

To refresh the citizens’ view of classical music, we have created a slogan, logo, and identity for a series of open-air concerts — Classic Picnic. There are enough seats for everyone and admission is free!

Get inspired with us and sound with the city!

Challenge

COVID-19 and the introduction of strict quarantine restrictions are events that have greatly affected all of us and forced us to change our usual way of life. Now people had to get used to living in self-isolation and connect with the world (work, friends, relatives) by various devices and messengers. The situation contributed to the surge in popularity of the video conferencing format.

Many not only locked themselves at home but in themselves too. This influenced a lot of the beauty industry. After all, people began to pay much less attention to their appearance.

 Solution

We decided to utilize this trend – and encourage people who have become hostages of their homes to be more open and “see” each other online more often. Yes, see each other! And start turning on cameras. And with the help of Garnier Fructis Superfood people who could look like whatever looked super.

We faced a challenge to break into the everyday life of people with a new product Kabanosy – long, thin sausages made from natural meat, positioned in between the meat-sausage and snack category. Until 2019 the product was unknown to both Ukrainian customers and distributors. Retail shops didn’t understand in which division the product should be sold, customers were puzzled whether to make sandwiches or eat Kabanosy with beer.

New product inspired us for a new approach for mixing media channels. We turned the classical media mix upside down and developed “DigiVision”, where digital plays a leading role in generating reach and TV is playing a secondary role. Non-standard and effective usage of media allowed Kabanosy to become a leader of the category of Snack and Meat products with minimal investment and significantly grew monthly sales.