Work we are
proud of

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.

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.

Molokija has found the solution in the situation with a quite limited advertising budget and persistently strong competitors’ activity. The Brand has stood out and found its own communication niche in the category.

Rebranding has been conducted, which led to changes in product packaging so that the product ingredients are now the most important highlighted detail. The aforementioned changes along with elaborately planned cross-media activity led us to the significant increase in OFF-TAKE indexes. As a result, both the White Yoghurt and Kefir became No. 1 in terms of market share in hryvnias as well as in tonnages in the period from February till May 2021.

Can selfies overcome cancer? Children with it have a 90% chance of recovery. But only when they are provided with the necessary treatment. In Ukraine, due to lack of funding and social problems, this figure is much lower, so online donations are very important. Together with Tabletochki Charity Foundation, we decided to increase the number of such donations, making selfies less selfish. That’s how the #MoneyCanChallenge came about.

The participant “complemented” his face in the photo with a portrait from a banknote donated to the Tabletochki and passed the call to friends. The flash mob was picked up by users and brands, making it one of the main TV news in the country. Tabletochki raised a considerable amount of money for charity at no cost, turning the instrument of love for oneself into an instrument of love for others.

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.

In the super-premium pet food segment where Purina Pro Plan plays, brands use rational communication that emphasizes their expertise. After all, this is what pure-blooded pets owners value, and they are the main consumers in the segment.

To stand among the competitors we drastically changed the rules of the game in the category and focused on the development of our own communication channels instead of using paid communication channels.

We developed a content strategy that was really useful for pet owners. It was a long-term thought-out strategy to be implemented in 3 stages: branded content creation; its scaling with the TV section; exclusive communication with the audience on the own cat show.

We were the first and the only in the category to choose this kind of path. And our bold trend-based solution has helped the brand to win the love of pet owners. Our market share has grown 2 times in 3 years, and brand perception has improved significantly!

For years the Chewing Gum category was represented by 2 leading brands: Orbit and Dirol. Orbit was a prominent player both in media investments and sales. Meanwhile, Dirol was #2 brand and eventually fell into the stasis where ad investment maintained the existing level of brand awareness while losing its positions in brand usage, consideration, and market share. Yet, Dirol decided to refresh its positioning and appeal to a younger audience – Generation Z.

Looking for an interesting youth territory we came upon bloggers trend. A big part of the audience is not only interacting with blogger content but dreaming of becoming one. Willing to help people with video content we created a Dirol Blogger Academy. Participants of the project had the possibility to learn how to become a blogger with special lessons from popular influencers, and the winner got 1 mln. views on Youtube for promotion of personal channel.

This project reflected the audience’s dreams vowed prominent brand slogan “Dirol. Inspires with taste” and positively affected brand sales.

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.