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When promotions in the pet supplies category look the same, it becomes increasingly difficult to capture the audience’s attention with discounts. For E-ZOO, we sought a solution that would both differentiate the brand from its competitors and deliver measurable performance results. This led to the creation of PromoStick, a mechanism that transformed online shopping into a genuine brand experience.

Goals

The pet supplies category is one of the most competitive in e-commerce, where standard promotions and discounts quickly lose their effectiveness. The main task was to increase sales in the dog supplies category and attract new customers to E-ZOO, while strengthening the brand’s position in a saturated environment.

To do this, we set a goal to create an interactive ecosystem of online touchpoints with the brand, increase reach and awareness among pet owners, achieve at least 2,000 PromoStick activations, and ensure a direct business result — growth in sales of dog products on the E-ZOO website.

The challenge

Pets have long been more than just animals. They are full-fledged members of the family. We love them dearly, spoil them with the best food, and buy stylish leashes and soft beds. Anything to make our furry friends happy.

This has led to rapid growth in the pet products market: in 2024, the pet products market in Ukraine reached UAH 45.4 billion and is one of the largest and fastest growing. For the fourth year in a row, annual turnover growth has been 15-30% (RAU, Pet Products Market Research, 2024). But along with growth, competition is also intensifying: online, most of the market is divided between large players, which creates a significant barrier to the development of smaller brands such as E-ZOO.

Marketing in this category is mostly focused on similar promotions and discounts, which makes brands less distinct from each other and distracts the audience’s attention. In such an environment, the key challenge was not just to offer another discount, but to stand out from the endless promotional catalog, attract the attention of pet owners, and build an emotional connection with the brand — in a way that would directly impact sales.

Insight and strategy

Dogs instinctively love the game “fetch the stick” — it’s a simple gesture that brings them joy and strengthens their bond with their owner. At the same time, pet parents in the digital world behave in a similar way: they are constantly looking for the best for their pets (great deals, promo codes, promotions). We saw a parallel: searching for a stick and searching for the best offer are almost the same behavior, only in different manifestations.

Based on this insight, we built a strategy: to transfer the favorite game of “fetch” to the digital world and turn the search for discounts into an interactive experience of interacting with the brand. This is how E-ZOO’s digital PromoStick came about — an online mechanism that combined the instincts of dogs and the rationality of pet owners and gave the brand the opportunity to stand out in the category not by the size of the discount, but by the format of contact.

Execution

First, our creative team developed the concept of offline PromoSticks — they collected real sticks, put smart messages and promo codes on them, and returned them to city parks. Dogs found the sticks during walks and brought them to their owners, who discovered discounts on food, toys, and other products for their pets. The idea instantly evoked an emotional response and organically engaged the audience with the brand.

Seeing the high level of audience engagement and interest, we scaled the mechanics to digital. To do this, we optimized the UX and integrated the digital PromoStick directly into the E-ZOO website — into the landing page, catalog, product cards, advertising, etc. Users could find promos at various points along the way, receiving alternative commercial offers in the form of promo codes integrated into performance campaigns: from contextual advertising to search campaigns, social networks, and retention mechanics.

This turned shopping into a game and a quest: you go in for cat food and suddenly find a digital stick with a promo code. Unexpected, exciting, and profitable at the same time.

As a result, our PromoStick ceased to be just a promotion — we built a full-fledged ecosystem of channels around the game with sticks. Offline sticks became the entry point, organic sharing on social media and influencers increased reach, search and social media advertising drove new audiences to the site, and CRM communications maintained interest and stimulated repeat purchases.

Results

PromoStick integrated into the user journey and allowed the emotional idea to be scaled into measurable business results. The campaign accurately targeted the audience and captured the attention of more than 1.6 million pet owners. The game mechanics increased engagement — CTR rose significantly, and conversion (CR) grew substantially, especially among new customers.

• promo During the 12-day promo, we attracted 2,267 sales using PromoStick, which accounted for almost 40% of all sales in the “Dog Products” category and 26% of E-ZOO’s entire product range.
• With an increase in the advertising budget of only 13%, we managed to attract 45.8% more sales in the Dog Products category, which generated +49.6% revenue. In other words, the average user check was even higher than usual.

At the same time, our “zoo creative” helped draw the attention of new customers to E-ZOO. We attracted a larger audience new to the brand, which led to a 61.5% increase in sales to new customers. PromoStick is an example of performance marketing that makes a campaign both emotional and effective, turning the game into real business results for the brand.

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 2022 Visa, like other responsible brands, reevaluated its priorities, focusing efforts and resources on support. The company created a non-commercial platform that served as a forum for the coordinated efforts of Visa’s social initiatives and its partners, arising in response to numerous simultaneous needs.

The establishment of the Brands Who Care enabled the consolidation of media channels, businesses, foundations, and those needing assistance for effective aid and support. Visa directed its communication investments to support the platform, emphasizing timely messages on areas requiring immediate assistance. The campaign was created by the Saatchi & Saatchi Ukraine team.

To achieve maximum visibility, the initiatives were presented as Brands who care, rather than directly under the Visa name, which facilitated more effective interaction with the audience. The project garnered significant reach, with over 50,000,000 contacts.

Since the launch of the first collaborations, over 20 initiatives have been organized, and over 80 million hryvnias have been raised. Brands who care community continue to thrive and evolve as a community of socially responsible brands.

Advertising for bread producers is usually a rare occurrence, as they typically do not heavily invest in communication projects. However, in recent years, ‘Tsar Khlib’ has broadened its product range, gained confidence, and made the decision: it’s time to take action.

Leo Burnett follows its own philosophy – HumanKind. This philosophy revolves around the desire to find a perfect balance that benefits both the brand and the individual. To achieve this, one must have a deep understanding of both sides. And what better way to showcase a brand than through its production process? Thus, the team gathered and embarked on a visit to the ‘Tsar Khlib’ factory to witness everything firsthand.

Before diving into the brainstorming session, it is crucial to explore how consumers perceive the brand’s products and the overall category. With insights from the client and the Publicis Groupe Data Science team, it was revealed that ‘Tsar Khlib’ holds a place as one of many consumers’ ‘favorite brands.’ However, a significant portion of the audience had not yet noticed the brand, simply regarding it as ‘just bread.’ The team also discovered that consumers prioritize bread quality, appreciating naturalness and taste. Even in everyday meals, Ukrainians enjoy treating themselves, turning a modest meal into a culinary delight. This behavior was coined as ‘everyday gourmets.’

This led to the development of a new brand platform called ‘Craftsmanship Tastes,’ emphasizing the key product attributes valued by consumers – quality and taste.

In transparent communication, it is not only essential to declare but also to demonstrate and convince consumers that these principles are reflected in the product manufacturing processes. Hence, a section named ‘Our Rules’ was created. This segment explains the bread-making process and why it yields such delicious results. Through engaging videos, viewers are provided with insights into daily practices, often imperfect, juxtaposed with the solid principles that ‘Tsar Khlib’ adheres to in product creation. Each rule represents a production insight, revealing the truth about the product while offering valuable and interesting information about its benefits.

To ensure the effectiveness of creative campaigns and boost sales, it is vital to establish communication channels correctly. Fortunately, the skilled professionals from PMX Publicis Groupe Ukraine expertly targeted advertising efforts in Kyiv and the surrounding region. The outcome was promising – awareness of ‘Tsar Khlib’ and its product range began to surge.

Collaborating with technologists, production staff, and the agency’s brand team, around 100 ‘rules’ were compiled, encapsulating the secrets of ‘Tsar Khlib’s’ craftsmanship. Stay tuned to the brand’s communications to uncover more hidden production insights.

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

Svitoch 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.

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.