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.
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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 moreThe “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.
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Selling 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 moreVanish changed its communication message to one that shows the benefits of its product, and at the same time provides an additional argument to encourage and support people in their quest for conscious consumption of the planet’s resources. Now the brand uses the message: ” Your favorite clothes look new much longer.” The Publicis Ukraine team also created an emotional print with the agency’s employees acting as heroes.
The work became one of the best global examples of “Print” ads of the first half of 2021 by “Lürzer’s Archive”. It is one of the most authoritative Austrian advertising resources. Since 1984 the issue has been publishing a selection catalog of the best advertising works from around the world.
Media support for Vanish projects is provided by the Spark Foundry Ukraine agency.
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At a time when the conventional approach is used in customer communication in the category of chocolate bars, we have managed to find our own viable solution – personalized communications with individual segments of a wide target audience. And this is what has delivered fantastic results – our market share has grown over as many as three months for the first time since the beginning of the lockdown. We have chosen to work on five segments that cover the majority of a wide audience aged 16-35. That said, however, we managed to appeal to each of them individually, to become closer and more relevant to their particular preferences. We have developed tailored solutions for each of them: packing, messages, media support, opinion leaders, and presents that meet interests. As a result, everyone had the opportunity to feel like a king in what this particular person was interested in. All these efforts have resulted in heightened attention, engagement in communication, and the main result – fantastic performance indicators!
Challenge: To check the decline in the brand’s market share by means of highly relevant communication that engages the audience.
Insight: While everyone else in the category is working with a wide audience (16 to 35), we can pave our own way of segmentation and personalization of the message.
Idea: Lion encourages you to feel like a king (Lion) in what you are interested in.
Bringing the Idea to Life: Tailored solutions for each of the five selected segments: from packing and message to communication channels and targeting.
Results: An increase in the market share by 1.7 percent after the start of the campaign due to the high engagement in communication.
read moreThis is a showcase of how Lenovo, a hi-tech electronics brand, thinks not only about the functional features of its products, but also takes care of both product usage conditions and client’s comfort.
Creating of Lenovo Meowbook – laptop for cats – added more emotions into the user-brand relationships as well as highlighting such a problem as ‘device damaging from cat’s fur’ which became communicative innovation in this category.
Virus orientation, originality, and non-standard merging of high technologies and additional customer care allowed Lenovo to be organically discussed in media and got 9.5 million impressions.
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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