Outwitting vandals

In October 2002 Hachette Filipacchi Publishing house started an original advertising campaign of Maxim magazine. It had problems before with such ads as the light boxes were often destroyed by vandals. Hachette Filipacchi found a new way to safeguard boxes with ads from attacks.

It seems that glass boxes with Maxim ads are broken and there are words “disgrace” and “lewdness” sprayed on them with red paint. Designers, who developed the ads, decided to outwit vandals and designed posters the way as if some puritan rowdies already “worked” on them.

Not a single light box with this ad was broken. The trick worked.

Gogol Mogol

Did you like yolks and sugar (“gogol-mogol” in Russian) when you were a child? I loved it greatly. The most difficult was separate egg-white from the yolk. One careless motion - and egg goes for the dull omelette, but not to the sweet dessert. I remember, as if this was yesterday, we with my sister (at age of five and three, respectively) spoiled three eggs contract and remained without the sweet. That was a real tragedy!

Probably, after recalling these children's tears, one kind designer devised a remarkable device to separate egg yolks. The secret is simple - it is only necessary to determine the right diameter of the opening to pour out egg-white. The brilliance of this invention is in the form of its realization. Even without focus- groups you know - children will adore this toy! How about "Pinocchio” version? Unfortunately, I got this picture by roundabout way and I do not know from what site it is taken. If someone sends me the name of the brilliant inventor of this device, I will place the appropriate reference without fail.

For those, who want to experience the sensations of happy childhood again, I give the recipe from RussianFoods.com

Mysteriously named Gogol’-Mogol’ is a deliciously rich and sweet dessert reminiscent of eggnog, made of raw egg yolks beaten with sugar, lemon juice, and cognac. It’s considered the best remedy for a singer’s sore throat. Without cognac, it can be served to children.

Combine raw egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat at low speed for 1 minute. With a rubber spatula, scrape up any sugar that may have stuck to the bottom of the bowl. Beat for 10 seconds more, gradually turning to maximum speed, then beat for 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture is pale yellow and thick. Add the brandy, liqueur, lemon juice, and grated rind of 2 lemons, and beat at maximum speed for 4 minutes, or until the mixture is very thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more, up to 2-3 hours.

Ingredients
12 egg yolks, raw.
9 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
2 teaspoons orange liqueur
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (optional).

Translate before you market

Every book on international marketing specially points out the importance of checking how your brands are translated. Being a huge international company is not an excuse for doing your homework before entering a new market. Ford started marketing its Nova brand in Latin America but forgot to check it out that ‘no va’ means “It doesn’t move” in Spanish.

When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" ("vuela en cuero") in Spanish!

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."

The Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux tried to sell its goods in America but didn't help itself with this slogan, "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Now I’d like to add my five kopecks. When Danone entered the Russian market in the early 90’s they started with its popular in Eastern Europe yoghurt brand “Bledina”. Unfortunately this word for Russians sounds like бледина – ‘a loose whore’. A friend of mine was working as a manager at Danone in Moscow. They made desperate phone calls to Danone HQ trying to explain them the problem. The typical answer was, “You Russians don’t know anything about marketing. So, shut up!” Danone bosses acted like real bledinas for almost a year while my poor friend was baited by everyone.

Snack that Comes from the Cold

Russian attitude towards bread was always devout and almost religious. An old Russian proverb goes, “Bread heads everything”. Even when bread becomes stale thrifty Russians cut it into tiny cubes, salt them and dry in an oven. These little crisp bread rusks (sukhariki) were a traditional Russian home-made snack for ages. They are a bit similar to French croutons but are usually made from black or rye bread.



It’s really surprising that all through the 90’s nobody in Russia got an idea to launch a sukhariki brand. Such snacks as potato chips were introduced in this country only some 20 years ago. “Lay’s” commercials also introduced a new habit among teens – snacking, and even a new word “chipsy”. But still potato chips were ‘foreign’ and in 1998 an enterprising Muscovite Dmitry Vasiliev decided to introduce a new ‘patriotic’ snack – packaged sukhariki. At first, sukhariki were made by traditional methods but the success of the new brand “3 Korochki” (3 Crumbs) was so fabulous that Vasiliev’s company “Bridgetown Foods” built a new factory to produce sukhariki only.
Another big brand in Russian sukhariki business is “Sibirsky Bereg” from Novosibirsk. In 1999 this company started producing sukhariki brand “Kirieshki” in a small bakery – only 3000 small packages a day. In 2003 they already had enough money to spend more than a million dollars on a new factory near Tula. In 2005 “Sibirsky bereg” spent at least 4 million dollars on ads in Moscow alone.
Just in seven years an absolutely new product became the most popular packaged snack in Russia.

Relieve Yourself from that Legend!

1998 was a great year in the history of Russian advertising. Coca-Cola took this country seriously and launched a fantastically expensive and aspiring advertising campaign “Coca-Cola – Drink the Legend”. The message was ‘localized’ – TV commercials were cast in Russia and pictured a plot from a Russian fairy tale. Before that all Coca-Cola commercials were ‘imported’ from the US and simply dubbed into Russian. The dubbing was not much professional – actors opened their mouths not in sync with Russian text.

Unfortunately this pretentious campaign was a complete failure. First, nobody got the plot of the commercial. They tried to squeeze too much content into 30 seconds. Second, MTV-like cutting was too flickering and annoying. And third, Russians didn’t get the message. What does it mean – drinking the legend? Was it the wrong translation from English? AskOxford.com says that a legend is a traditional story that some people think of as being historical, but which is not authenticated. Exactly the same meaning as in Russian ‘leghenda’ (легенда). What does it have to do with Coca-Cola? Coca-Cola is not authenticated or what?

I don’t think there are many people outside Coca-Cola HQ who think that this carbonated, caffeinated and sugary soda has anything legendary. Well, it definitely rudely forced out from the market many traditional Russian soda brands in a truly Genghis Khan manner. But is it something to be so proud about.

Russian design studio BraMC immortalized this legendary campaign with this parody ad – “Coca-Cola – Relieve Yourself from that Legend!”

New Alternatives to Vobla

I already wrote about Russian tradition of drinking beer with vobla. Some of my friends who read this blog rightly pointed out that vobla belongs to the past. That’s true – I don’t see many Russian under 35 who take vobla seriously. As a snack, vobla has too many disadvantages. One needs certain skill to cut it correctly and eating vobla is always an untidy process. It’s also too smelly and too salty. Then, there are many nice alternatives to vobla on the market.
The best alternative, as I see it, is dried squid. Squid is cut into thin fibre-like pieces and then cured by drying. This snack for beer was always very popular in the Russian Far East (Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, etc.) but it was introduced in the European Russia only about ten years ago. Dried squid almost immediately became very popular and almost forced out vobla from the market. Nowadays vobla is sold mostly on open markets by vendors who prepare it themselves.

Russian snacks producer from Novosibirsk “Sibirkiy Bereg” promotes a new brand “Beer’ка” where “Beer” means what is means – beer, but Russian ending “–кa” makes it sound like “бирка” (a label or a tag). The idea behind the brand – “You don’t drink beer without dried fish snacks”. “Beer’ka” TV commercials were broadcasted under the slogan “Delivered with beer!” It slightly reminds one of Heinz Ketchup “they run out of Heinz” commercials.

“Beer’ka” product line consists of several kinds of dried squid (the most popular snack), dried pepper shrimps, dried anchovy, amber fish and yellowtail rudderfish.

Nicht vobla, as you can see.

Russian Internet Access

The number of Russia’s registered Internet users totaled 3 million people at the end of 2000. At the end of 2004 there were at least 22 million Internet users in Russia. According to the report cited by RBC, prospects for the development of the Internet in Russia mostly depend on potential clients’ capacity to buy new computers rather than on the development of access networks and capacities of telephone exchanges. Nowadays one can buy a good second-hand PC for as little as 150 US dollars.Internet cafes and Wi-Fi hotspots are almost everywhere.

Welcome to Moscow, internet addicts!

Gillette makes three strokes

Some ad slogans for American brands sound really odd for a Russian ear. For example, Gillette Mach3 slogan, “ You make one stroke – Gillette Mach3 makes three” (Вы делаете одно движение – Gillette Mach3 делает три). Well, you get this message if you know that Gillette Mach3 has three blades. You make one stroke but because Gillette Mach3 has three blades, the result is the same as if you made three strokes. Three blades, less strokes, less irritation.


But still – Gillette Mach3 doesn’t make any strokes at all. I do, not Gillette. And I do only ONE stroke even though my skin is three times better shaved after that single stroke. Now there’s that new Gillette M3Power that actually makes a lot of strokes all by itself but it scares me.

A Russian web designer company Bramc made a parody ad for this weird slogan. “Gillette Mach3 condoms. You make one movement – Gillette Mach3 makes three”.

Beer and Vobla

One thing any Russian beer drinker misses abroad is vobla. Vobla (Rutilus rutilus caspicus) or Caspian roach is a small fish that lives in the Caspian Sea. It’s salted and dried in the sun until it becomes semi-transparent and somewhat hard to bend. Most Russian eat it as a snack. One simply pinches off edible parts and wash them down with beer. Actually nowadays less and less people drink beer with vobla but it still is a kind of a national symbol. Something to be proud about.

Recently Sun Interbrew started a new advertising campaign promoting its beer brand “Bagbeer”. This is a local brand popular in Western Siberia. It has nothing to do with Germany except the pseudo-German name. The Bagbeer commercial features all the joys of drinking excellent German beer in Germany. But hey! They don’t have vobla in Germany! What’s more – they are so sick and tired of Russians who constantly demand vobla that they write “Achtung Nicht Vobla” on holders near beer bars.


What’s the way out? Stay at home where you can enjoy “Bagbeer” that is as good as in Germany. Here nobody will violate your right to eat vobla wherever you like.

What's the message?

Arktur is a Russian producer of men’s underwear and socks. I never heard about this company before but recently I noticed several Arktur billboards in Moscow. This billboard is picturing two men. One of them (with long hair on the right) is Tarzan – a notorious stripper loved by Russian tabloids. He is performing in a Moscow “Little Red Riding Hood” only-for-women strip bar and takes 500 US dollars for a private dance.
What’s the message of this ad? Tarzan’s exterior simply disgusts me and I’m sure that I’m sure millions of Russian men share my attitude. If I see Arktur socks in a store I won’t buy them on principle. Do they focus on gays? I doubt it strongly. For Russian gays he is the least attractive celebrity. Anyway, socks and underwear for gays is such a tiny market niche.

The only reasonable explanation is the idea that women – not men – is Arktur’s target audience. If you want buy socks for your boyfriend – choose Arktur. I only wonder what would my wife, for example, say, “Dear, I bought you socks endorsed by Tarzan. You know, that guy who takes 500 dollars for a private dance”.

Extra Strong Beer

Ten years ago in the USA I saw a beer commercial that I found strange. It was about a new extra strong Colt 45 beer. I asked, “Why is it 45?” and got an answer, “Because it is 4,5% alcohol” Wow! I always thought 4,5% alcohol is normal.
Times Online published an article discussing a new ‘revolutionary’ approach to beer making:

" THE sale of a lager that is so alcoholic it is recommended only for sale in half-pints was condemned yesterday as an encouragement of dangerous drinking. Artois Bock, which is 6.2 per cent alcohol by volume, is being introduced by Interbrew, which makes Stella Artois. Most standard lagers are about 4 to 4.5 per cent alcohol and Stella Artois is 5.2 per cent. The new beer is supposed to be savoured in the same way as a glass of wine, according to Interbrew, which has designed special “manly” half-pint glasses for it. "

Now I don’t think this approach is revolutionary. As far as I know 8,5% alcohol “Baltika 9” beer was introduced in Russia in 1996. It was a very popular brand among industry workers and it was savoured not from special half-pint glasses but from 0,5 liter tins. It’s popularity significantly dropped when “Baltika” revealed its secret formula of “Baltika 9”. They simply add pure alcohol to ordinary 4,5% beer to make it stronger.

Some wags made a mock ad for “Baltika 9” with a nice slogan – “We mix beer and vodka for you!” That’s what I call consumer centred marketing!

PS. A spiny fish you see is a ruff or ‘yorsh” - a Russian name for this cocktail.

Marketing Auto Insurance

Since the beginning of 2005 Russian car owners are obliged to buy auto insurance for collision. Supposedly, this kind of insurance would make driving in Russia safer. First, drivers would be more careful as wouldn’t want to pay extra insurance fees in case they drive recklessly. Second, owners of expensive cars would be protected from moneyless idiots driving 20-years old (and 200 dollars) worth Zhigulis.

Everything with the word ‘obligatory’ makes insurance companies rave. There are hundreds of insurance companies and everyone wants those obligatory rubles from drivers. In this highly competitive environment it’s necessary to focus on some definite consumer segment and target it effectively.

“Itil” Insurance Company from Kazan (Tatarstan) targeted its marketing efforts on older people who drive dilapidated Soviet-era cars. Like the guy on this ad in his “Zaporozhets” car (no longer on the market). Now he is really happy – with “Itil” auto insurance he can ram as many Mercedeces as he likes with no dire consequences. Or so they say.



There are dozens of jokes about Zhuguli ramming Mercedes. For example, an old Zhuguli collides with a Mercedes 600. Three big sullen guys get out of Mercedes. An old poor and skinny pensioner get out of Zhiguli. “Now, old man. Get ready. We will kick the s*** out of you”- say the guys. “No, please! That’s not fair! There are three of you but I’m only one” – says the pensioner. The guys take counsel with one another for a couple of minutes. “Ok, you’re right. Alex will be on your side.”

By the way, does this poor Russian pensioner remind you of someone?

InStyle in Russia

InStyle magazine is now in Russia. The first Russian issue is on sale in major Russian cities from the 29th of August. What an event! InStyle Russia marketing director Yulia Donnikova (before she was Elle Russia marketing director) said in an interview to Fashion Guide that they plan to spend 4 million US dollars on ads. It’s quite a sum of money by Russian standards. Glamour Russia magazine, for example, spent 5 millions USD and its ads were quite “visible” at least in Moscow.

Almost no one in Russia heard about InStyle. Isn’t it reasonable to give potential readers some time to get to know the logo of the magazine? Why was it necessary to hide half of the logo with the head of the cover girl? Should readers guess themselves what InS…e means?
Usually at a start up of a new magazine editors try hard to fill first issues with very interesting content. Somehow InStyle first issue looks like a fashion sales catalogue complete with price tags and addresses of stores where one can buy them.

Facelifting for your Pet

So, you made a facelift and liposuction. Your new breast implants make you look super sexy but there’s something that makes your bliss incomplete. You feel ashamed because your pet still looks ugly.



No problem! There’s a Russian veterinary clinic that can make your pet share your happiness. Look at this ad. It says: “Veterinary Clinic. Anaplastic surgery. Before and after operation.”