The super-premium beer brand Kronenbourg has been building its attributes in the fashion territory for several years. This required large investments, but by differentiating from the main competitors, the brand gained growth in premium attributes year after year.
In 2022, the brand showed a decline in sales for the first time ever. Therefore, in 2023, it was crucial to resume the communication of premium attributes to deliver its added value to consumers who prefer cheaper brands in times of economy.
Understanding the irrelevance of fashion in the war, Publicis Groupe Content team with the Zenith Ukraine team helped Kronenbourg find its renewed meaning. The brand’s communication was based on supporting Ukrainian designers who continue creating and responding to the needs of society. In partnership with Vogue.ua, we created the Resilience & Social Impact nomination and provided real help to the laureates.
Five Ukrainian brands received awards. Among the summer months, sales in August 2023 exceeded the 2021 level and showed a peak for the entire year. We maintained leading positions in key attributes, significantly surpassing competitors as “premium” and “modern.” And, of course, we reached a target audience of 7 500 000.
As a result of the campaign, we achieved more than reversing the downward trend in sales. We solved the Brand’s strategic task and found a new meaning in the fashion communication platform that meets the needs of society during the war.
read moreIn 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.
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For over 100 years, Carol of the Bells has been synonymous with Christmas. However, many people are unaware that this iconic song originated from Ukraine. Mykola Leontovych, a Ukrainian composer, arranged a traditional Ukrainian folk song into the version we know today, in 1914.
To aid Ukrainian children affected by war, we transformed the beloved Carol of the Bells into
a donation platform using Shazam. The new version of the song, titled Carol for Charity, encourages listeners to Shazam itself and donate for children’s needs with just a few clicks.
“Carol for Charity” went viral in 11 countries. With the help of Publicis Groupe teams worldwide, it was featured on 22 radio stations and integrated directly into Christmas movies via bumper ads. Media and TV coverage further boosted the project’s popularity, leading to the song being played over 1,000,000 times.
The project received numerous awards at prestigious festivals such as Cannes Lions, LIA Awards, Mad Stars, The One Show, and Golden Drum.
read moreSelling OTC pharmaceuticals online is one of the most challenging ventures in performance marketing. However, with the advent of Covid-19, we identified a potential opportunity. Specifically, we anticipated a surge in online sales and a transition of users from offline to online platforms.
We took the initiative to become market pioneers, establishing the most transparent and effective collaboration with online retailers. We successfully launched Performance Marketing for Sandoz drugs, transforming the Black Box Pharma eRetail Media market into a clear, comprehensible, real-time analytical system. This allows for clear tracking of our advertising campaigns’ business results and boosts sales by attracting new users.
read moreSvitoch Exclusive is exquisite dark chocolate with 51% of cocoa. It is presented in four unusual flavors: chili with apricot, sea salt with caramel, ginger with lemon, and hazelnut with peanut.
When developing the packaging the team emphasized the main advantages of the new product – the famous Svitoch chocolate and the ingredients in the form of pieces.
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The Ukrainian Creative Awards festival took place in Odesa from May 29 to June 1. It is a large-scale event in the creative market of the country, which brings together the most ideological and inspired creative people. Creativity is their natural way of life, so we believe that such people are the real driving force that can change the world. Thus was born our idea for the advertising campaign of the festival “Creativity — Ukrainian national idea”, thanks to which the creative flair in itself could be discovered and supported by everyone.
read moreWe 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.
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Pandemic is a hard time for people: we are flooded by bad news and sad thoughts. We all need a source of calmness and harmony during these times.
Therefore we created a new philosophy “Take it smoothie”, which helps to deal with bad moods and tough problems.
We used only social networks to promote our campaign and created bright content, interesting copy, and super cool Insta-masks.
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