Statues to Kapitalists

Kapital Investment Group celebrated its 10-years anniversary. On the 25th of October bronze statues to various famous businessmen, both deseased and living, popped up on the popular streets and squares of Moscow. The event was organized by Euro Publicity advertising agency and its BTL subsidiary Event Professional.

Among the bronze sculptured figures were Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Savva Morozov, George Soros, Donald Trump and Walt Disney. This way Kapital Group paid tribute to the ‘kapitalists’ of the world.

Roles of the statues were played by actors dressed in ‘bronze’ clothes and wearing ‘bronze’ make-up. From time to time “statues” slightly moved scaring pedestrians to death.
On the picture above there’s a “statue” to Bill Gates at the Mayakovsky Square. The inscription on the pedestal reads: “To the great genius of capital on the 10th anniversary of Kapital Investment Group”.

Via Sostav

Technorati Tags: Russia, Moscow, promotion, Bill Gates, statue

 

Glukoza

Glukoza’s career in Russian pop music started with a computer animated video clip in 2002. In that clip Glukoza was a nothing but a cartoon character – a weird girl with two strange pony tail and an accompanying Doberman. Her voice was also weird – strong but somewhat snuffling and nasal. Glukoza’s clip “Nevesta” (Bride) was a huge success. It shot Glukoza immediately onto the top of Russian MTV charts. Nobody knew who is behind the voice. Max Fadeev, the project producer, did not comment on that problem.

In Russia pop singers make money almost always only on concert tours. Piracy makes income from CDs of MP3’s puny. It was evident that Max needed a real live person to start making cash – a cartoon character was of no help. Tabloids speculated that Glukoza’s voice belonged to Zhanna Aguzarova – an extravagant, unpredictable and almost mad singer (she believes that she’s an alien from Mars) notorious for disrupting concerts. There were also rumors that that the singer behind the voice is Max Fadeev’s own wife who was very good at parodying Aguzarova. Unfortunately, Max’s wife is not “presentable” – too old for the cartoon girl from the clip.

Fadeev needed a girl who should be (1) unknown, (2) pretty, (3) young but above all (4) with Glukoza’s unique voice. The situation was desperate. Time was pressing so one day Max Fadeev presented to the general public Glukoza in flesh. The girl, Natasha Ionova, completely satisfied condition 1,2 and 3 but with the forth one there were serious problems. I mean Natasha tried really hard to sing with a nasal twang but the result was pathetic.

Anyway Glukoza is still a celebrity. Over the last two years she released several successful singles and brought Max a lot of money.

Technorati Tags: Moscow, Russia, Glukoza, pop, animation, Aguzarova, Fadeev

 

Scandals Sell

The placing of this billboard in a Russian town of Voronezh started with a scandal. The billboard advertises a local jewelry store “Rubin” but the man on the photograph is definitely Antonio Banderas. FAS – Russian Federal Service for controlling the execution of antimonopoly laws – suspected that the store couldn’t have so much money as to get the Hollywood star endorsement. The manager of the store Sergey Kuksov was asked to visit Voronezh FAS for an interview.

As Interfax reports, the FAS inspectors were dumbfounded when they saw the manager. “We thought the actor himself visited us – all in black.” It turned out Sergey Kuksov is Antonio Banderas look-alike. Yes, he is the chief manager of the store. Yes, he put his mugshot on the billboard to make the ad message more personal. No, he didn’t try to deceive anyone.

Actually the placing of billboards itself didn’t bring many customers to “Rubin”. But when the story was told on a local TV channel, dozens of women and men swarmed the store to take a look at Banderas’s twin.

Technorati Tags: Voronezh, Russia, billboard, advertising, Banderas, Rubin, FAS

 

Outdoor Ads RIP

In Arkhangelsk (aka Archangel) in the night from 24th to 25th of October there appeared these scary ads with the words of “Outdoor Advertising in Arkhangelsk. 1995 - 2005”. The chief manager of “Nord Media” advertising company Konstantin Yakovlev explained that it was done in protest towards the decision of the Arkhangelsk Municipality to raise local taxes on outdoor advertisements. It means that for a 3x6 meters advertisers should pay 6000 rubles (214 US$) a month in comparison with 2000 rubles they paid before.

Konstantin Yakovlev claims that taxes on advertising already make 8-10% of the company’s turnover. It should be noted that those special taxes are only for outdoor ads. Advertisers on TV or radio pay only income tax. Arkhangelsk Municipality already got more than 10 million rubles in 2005 from outdoor ads taxes.

Via arnews

Technorati Tags: Arkhangelsk, Russia, outdoor, advertising, cross, taxes, protest

 

'Reeb Lokos' Means 'Sokol Beer'

Sokol Beer was not particularly popular in Russia until they found a clever trick to build brand recognition. Sokol commercials started using surrealistic surroundings, psychedelic symbols and weird music. But the strangest part was its new slogan “Ovip Lokos” (Овип Локос). The smartest viewers soon discovered that it was a mirror image of “Sokol Pivo” (Sokol Beer). People who drive cars and catch a sight of a Miller Beer billboard in a rear view mirror would read it as Reeb Rellim. No such problems for Sokol billboards!

Ovip Lokos – in the name of Good!

Technorati Tags: Moscow, Russia, beer, advertising, mirror, tv, Sokol

 

We were lovin' it

Almost 15 years ago McDonalds opened its first restaurant in the Soviet Union. That was a very symbolic event commemorating the victory of Gorbachev’s glasnost. It was also the first Western ‘ruble’ restaurant. Such outlets as Pizza Hut accepted only dollars but simply possessing foreign currency was a felony for Soviet citizens. One had to stay for two or three hours in line just to get inside although it was very expensive. I remember I spent about 10 rubles for a Big Mac dinner – almost 5% of my monthly salary but it was a rare chance to taste a symbol of “glamorous” Western life. Back in 1990 recruiters at McDonalds in Moscow had a chance to pick up candidates to wash restrooms among thousands and thousands of career hungry applicants. Cashiers at McDonalds look like Russia Beauty Pageant finalists. They also smiled as if I were in a jury and were awesomely friendly.



Fifteen years later dozens of McDonalds are all over Moscow. They are always very crowded as they are probably the cheapest fast-food outlets where you can be sure that the food quality is stable. About 2 US$ for ‘Royal de Luxe’ and a glass of orange juice is very reasonable. A week ago I was at one McDonalds with a friend of mine. “Look, - he said and pointed at waiters, - The Monster Corporation”. One was obese, one unhealthily thin, one with huge ears, one with a missing front tooth. And all of them had that weird gaze of a zombie automaton. Where on earth did they find them? Still there are huge ads all around that run “McDonalds is Hiring! Give your career a boost!” All these ads picture happy smiling employees from 1990. I guess so, because I don’t see them at McDonalds in Russia anymore.

Technorati Tags: Moscow, Russia, MacDonalds, fast food, popular, Big Mac, 1991

Drink Vod*a!

Any ads promoting strong alcohol are banned in Russia. The only place allowed for vodka ads are liquor departments in supermarkets or liquor stores. When this new law was introduced Russian alcohol producers easily found a way out. First, they went on with billboards because fines were these kinds of ads were not scary enough. Ad agencies included fines for alcohol ads right into the bill. “Ok, - ad agencies would say, - 200 thousands for placing your billboards plus 200 thousands for fines that authorities would charge us”. But then rules became more strict and strong alcohol producers had to become smarter. Soon a new strategy was found. Billboards promoting ‘absolutely clear, refreshing and pure’ drinking water started popping up all over the place. In Russian ‘water’ is ‘voda’. ‘Voda’ or ‘vodka’ – what’s the difference? I don’t know if drinking water ‘Yat’ was ever produced but consumers at liquor stores always find boxes of ‘Yat’ vodka with exactly the same logo and package design as on broadly advertised ‘Yat’ water bottles.

For dummies, who still didn’t get the hint, advertisers push the message by ‘stronger’ slogans. This ad of ‘Slavyanskaya’ voda – sorry, water – says, “A person can stand three days without drinking. But he can also spend them drinking”. The label on the right goes, "Try it in stores all over the town".

Via mastertext.spb.ru

Lonely Planet Guide to Space

One little book for American publishing business – one big leap for Russian space programs marketing.

From we make money not art :
Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, the space tourism firm that arranged Gregory Olsen's voyage has teamed up with Joshua Piven, co-author of "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" to write The Space Tourist's Handbook.
The book covers destinations, modes of travel, accommodations, sightseeing, meals and costs.
The packages are rated on three criteria: mission time, travel and training time, and cost, which can range from one dollar sign (symbolizing a trip costing less than $10,000) to five dollar signs (standing for a trip that costs more than $1 million.)
There are also tips and etiquette for everything from sleeping to eating to bathing to using the vacuum toilets (Lesson 1: Make sure there is a tight seal between your body and the toilet seat.)
Since the only ship currently offering tourists passage to the International Space Station is the Russian Soyuz, the handbook also includes a helpful list of phonetic Russian phrases such as Olya che-VOH EH-tah KNOHP-ka? ("What does this button do?")

LOL. The given phrase sounds silly for a Russian native speaker – Оля, чево ета кнопка? Olya is a Russian female name. I would translate it, “Sally, what this button?” Now I imagine a space tourist asking this question and getting – a slap on the hand. “Don’t you ever touch anything here!” – “Ehhh… che-VOH … ehhh… EH-tah…” Slap, slap, slap.

A press conference after the flight. “Why are your hands so purple? What’s this black eye you have?” – “Hands – for touching buttons. Black eye – for calling comrade captain Olya.”
I only hope that during the six months pre-flight training space tourists will be taught more useful Russian phrases.

Pre-Election Marketing

Inspired Bee Publishing House starts promoting its new product – political toilet paper. It plans to sell the product in Russia and Ukraine. One wad is targeted at Russians and it pictures Putin, Lukashenko and a disgraced Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Another wad is for Ukrainian voters with Ukrainian politicians. And the third wad plays on anti-American sentiments in both countries. Here we see Bush, Rice and Blaire who is not American but it probably makes no difference to Inspired Bee.

AdMe.ru took an interview with an owner of Inspired Bee who said that they hope to launch the product before the start of the Ukrainian election campaign in 2006. That’s no problem for Russia as the elections start only in 2008. Ads for this product are already published in several Ukrainian magazines.

Monuments for Free

Epson sells cheap ink jet printers but ink for them is very expensive. Gillette sells cheap shaving sets but overpriced shaving cartridges. This marketing trick is probably as old as the world but a well-known Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli goes further. He gives his monumental sculptures as gifts. It should be noted that they are not small monuments – they are almost always huge. Really huge. For example, his monument to Peter the Great in Moscow is almost 100 feet tall. It was erected in record times. One day Muscovites were walking along an empty Moscow River embankment but two weeks later there’s a monster bronze structure – a tall sailing ship mast with a man at a steering wheel holding some kind of a scroll in his right hand. The head of the man definitely belonged to Peter the Great but the structure in general looked like Tsereteli’s monument to Columbus. People who closely follow the creative work of the sculptor were sure that he already tried in vain to give this monument as a gift to the Domenic Republic to commemorate the Discovery of America. But then the head of the man belonged to Columbus. The Domenican government managed not to take this gift. What an unfriendly gesture!

This year Zurab Tsereteli managed to give as a gift his another huge monument commemorating 911 that will be erected in New Jersey.

"NJ.Com reports Bayonne has accepted Zurab Tsereteli’s teardrop memorial that was rejected by Jersey City. Soviet artist Zurab Tsereteli to put the 100-foot tall monument on the city’s waterfront, at the former Military Ocean Terminal, now known as the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor. The roughly nine-story monument - a rectangular block with a fissure down the middle with a 40-foot glass teardrop suspended in it - is called “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism.”

Is Mr. Tsereteli so rich and generous that he can afford to give away his monuments for free? Well, you see, it’s only the monument itself that is a gift. You only pay for bronze, steel, casting, transportation and construction. Evil tongues say that the artist has his own interest in companies that cast and construct his monuments. In case you don’t want to pay anything at all there’s the Government of Moscow that can sign the bill. Zurab Tsereteli is one of the closest friends of the Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov.

"Although the memorial is being donated by Moscow and the people of Russia, Perrucci said the Bayonne memorial committee will continue to raise funds to cover costs associated with such items as the park’s landscaping and brick pavers, which he said could be used as personalized memorials, reports NJ.Com.

Extraordinary Ordinary Detergent

In Russia comparative advertisement is illegal. This way, in Ariel commercial this detergent is always compared to a plain and no-name Ordinary Detergent. You see, Ordinary Detergent cannot wash away those nasty coffee stains but Ariel can. When P&G spent millions and millions on dollars on promoting Ariel, a Russian company “Nevskaya Kosmetica” launched a new brand of detergents. Guess, how they called it? Right. “Ordinary Detergent” (Обычный порошок) that doesn’t work wonders and doesn’t need to.

How often your clothes are so dirty that nothing but Ariel can wash it clean? Not often. That’s why you need a cheap alternative. The brand that P&G featured so many times in its commercials. You usual “Ordinary Detergent” for everyday washing of clothes that are not stained. And by the way, in Russia comparative advertisement is illegal. So we don’t want our brand compared to Ariel anymore. That wasn’t much of a problem for P&G. Next time they compared Ariel to a Cheap Detergent.

I’m not sure if Ordinary Detergent is successful but many people thought is was fun to buy it. And anyway, Nevskaya Kosmetica didn’t spend a kopeck to build name recognition. P&G did it for them.

Immortal Beloved

'Plavleniy sirok’ (плавленый сырок) is a traditional Russian snack that is similar to European cream cheese. Sirok production was a good way to utilize broken hard cheese truckles. It was melted together with milk, formed into tiny ‘bricks’ in the size exactly like cigarette boxes and packaged into foil. Sirok was very cheap, always available at stores and quite nutritional. It was regarded as the best ‘zakuska’ by seasoned vodka professionals. The best sirok was “Druzhba” (Friendship) although I could never make it out what friendship were they meaning. Probably it was about that feeling of camaraderie between drinking buddies. When I was a student, “Druzhba” was the only affordable snack to chase our vodka with.

In the 90s it disappeared from stores as was usual with dozens of traditional Soviet snacks and drinks. “Druzhba” was replaced with ersatz – sirok, like “Viola” or “Hochland”. But now “Druzhba” is back! Moscow cheese dairy and creamery Karat, after a decade of barratry, finally secured the right to be the sole owner of the famous brand. “Druzhba” sirok is immortalized in the sculpture (by Shcherbakovs) that pictures a Crow and a Fox happily sharing this favorite Russian snack. One can see it at the Karat dairy in Moscow not far from Dmitrovskaya Metro station. Why a Crow and a Fox? For those of you who don’t know, it is about the Krylov’s fable every Russian school kid learns by heart at the age of seven. Here’s its English version.

“A crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a Fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese.
Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said, "What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be Queen of the Birds."
The Crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the Fox that she could sing she gave a loud caw. Down came the cheese and the Fox, snatching it up, said, "You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits."

Only in Russia the Fox is female.

Low Budget Brand Launch

‘Pelmeni’ are Russian ravioli-like pasta envelopes containing minced meat. Always with meat. Envelopes with mashed potatoes or fruits are called ‘vareniki’ and are more popular in Ukraine. The popularity of pelmeni in Russia is immense. It’s one of the most popular traditional fast food. You simply put frozen pelmeni into boiling water and in 5 minutes you get a nutritional meal. In Siberian villages people make thousands of pelmeni when the first frosts come and keep them in special leather sacks outside all the winter long. In Siberia one doesn’t need to worry that they get out of order when the average winter temperature is -20C.

For long pelmeni were regarded as commodity, such as sugar, bread or pasta. The first Russian brand of premium pelmeni that was aggressively marketed and advertised was Daria. It was introduced by Oleg Tinkov – a Russian marketing enfant terrible. He managed to boost Daria brand recognition to 40% on the budget as low as about 20 thousand dollars. The billboard ads he placed in St. Petersburg and Moscow pictured buttocks powered with flour. The inscription on the ad reads, “Your favorite little pelmeni!!!” (The www link underneath is no longer valid.) Go http://www.daria.ru/ if you want to know Daria better.



This billboard was banned in St. Petersburg on the next day of appearance. Moscow authorities, being less puritan, banned it in about a week. But it was so outrageous and scandalous that in the next months almost all tabloids, weekly and magazines in Russia republished it. Daria got more publicity than no other brand in Russia. It also originated hot discussions on what kind of nudity in ads is a public offense.

As it always happens the trick worked only once. No follower managed to repeat the success of Daria.

Rudeness Promotes Beer

Some twenty years ago in Russia (the USSR) simply getting into a bar to drink beer was an excruciating process. In Moscow I had to stay almost two hours in a line to get into the Zhiguli bar at the Kalinin Street. The bar was huge but inside it was always crowded, stuffy and smoky. Waiters there were not just rude – they were the Rudeness World Championship finals. Real heavyweights. When they brought you beer and flung it over your table, you had to be extra thankful that they brought you that watery stuff at all. If you said that there was too much foam, a Zhiguli bar waiter would become really mad. “What? Why on earth should I care about the foam? I have more important things to do. There are too many of you here but I’m only one.”

Hoegaarden Beer now tries to promote its brand using this old good Russian rudeness. This Internet ad banner goes, “Why on earth should we filter our beer? There are things more important than filtering.” The point of this ad is that Hoergaarden beer is not filtered and unfiltered beer tastes better. I personally don’t think that unfiltered beer is better. It’s just different.

Anyway I was curious why Hoergaarden thinks I should filter their beer myself. The ad link brought me to the page where they first asked me if I’m older than 18 (one link) or younger (another link). I thought they don’t want kids to be engulfed in a torrent of invectives on the topic, “How dare you asked us to do your filtering job”. On the contrary, they asked me politely to participate in a promo campaign and win a case of beer. I brusquely refused.