Voskhod Calendar

I already wrote about calendar fever at the New Year eve when ad agencies show up their creativity. Ad agency Voskhod published its own calendar based on straight forward understanding of ad slogans. Only 230 calendars were published and sent to clients and partners. It was published on the net and soon dozens of potential buyers lined up at the agency’s door. “We do not plan to publish more calendars” – says Adrei Gubaidullin. “It’s an exclusive thing. If you want one buy at the auction”.

Via Sostav

Kills Bugs Dead

It happened. House cockroaches in Russia disappeared. Completely. Together with TV commercials of ant-roach chemicals. Nobody actually knows how it happened. Just five years ago cockroaches were a real pest. Even if you managed to extradite them in your own apartment they come back from apartments of your slovenly neighbors. Most of experts believe the reason for cockroaches disappearance is a new chemical used in special baits that not only make roaches sterile but make this disease contagious.

Here I see the irony of the most successful marketing. You invent a super weapon against pests, market it smartly, make a lot of money but the weapon is so successful that it liquidates all pests together with the source of your income. Or was the source of your income the chemical itself?

I already mentioned above why the war against cockroaches in a typical Russian apartment block house was hopeless. In the old times of the Soviet Union 98% of apartments were not sold but “distributed”. Families could wait for a new apartment for 10-15 and when a new apartment house was built families of doctors, lawyers, truck drivers, sailors, drunks and ex-convicts all move together and live together. Most of them still do. I don’t know if there’s any other country outside the Soviet block where doctors, drunks and mad babushkas live side by side.

Things slowly change as drunks sell there apartments and become tramps or when doctors become rich and success and move to a newly built good neighborhood but all in all the process is very slow. Middle class Russians know about lives and habits of the underworld not from movies – it’s right here next to your door.

Toilet Clothes

Arabeska ad agency published a calendar for Mir Tissue Company for its toilet paper brand Linia Veiro. All models are dressed in clothes made completely of toilet paper. “Toilet paper production is not only trade but also art”.

Linia Veiro is known for its controversial commercial. Asses of different people are complaining of their hard and difficult life and demand Linia Veiro toilet paper for compensation. “Did not we deserve it?”

Click to play

Via Sostav

Chickenburger

McDonalds brings its new Chickenburger to Russia. It costs only 29 rubles (US$ 1.10) and should delight teens 16+ and other cheapskaters. McDonalds has been selling GreekMac for almost a year and I did like that sandwich. Actually GreekMac was the only reason I visited McDonalds from time to time. Then a couple of months ago they crossed it off menu and introduced yet another innovation. Everything comes and goes but only Big Mac stays forever.

VimpelCom on NYSE

Ten years ago VimpelCom became the first Russian company to be listed on NYSE. Its symbol is VIP – very telling. VimpelCom managers have good reasons to celebrate. VIP is #1 NYSE stock on 10-years return. According to Capital IQ (division of S&P) in the last ten years VIP had 906.7% return on NYSE. Number 2 is ORIX (Japan) with 435.6% return and number 3 is POSCO (S.Korea) with 384.9%. If you invested $10,000 in VIP in 1996 you should have almost one million dollars in your bag.

Via AdMe

How often Russian drinkers buy vodka

How often Russian vodka-drinking males buy vodka?

2-3 times a week – 5.9%
Once a week – 19.2%
2-3 times a month – 37.1%
Once a month – 26.9%
Once in 3 month or less – 11.3%

People who do not buy vodka at all are not included into the sample.

Happy Old New Year!

This weekend Russians celebrate the Old New Year. Here's the information on the holiday from Wikipedia:

The Old New Year (Russian: Старый Новый год) is an informal traditional East Slavic holiday celebrated as the start of the New Year by the Julian calendar. In the 20th and 21st centuries the Old New Year falls on January 13/14.
Although Soviet Russia officially adopted the Gregorian calendar back in 1918, the Russian Orthodox Church continued using the Julian calendar. The New Year became the only holiday which is celebrated by both calendars.
Like in most countries that use the Gregorian calendar, the New Year's Day in Russia is a public holiday and is celebrated on January 1. On that day, lots of joyous entertainment and fireworks and other festivities, and elaborate and often large meals are common.
The New Year by the Julian calendar is still informally observed and the tradition of celebrating the coming of the New Year twice is widely enjoyed.
Usually not as festive as the true New Year, for many this is a nostalgic family holiday ending the New Year holiday cycle.

Most of Russians keep New Year tree and decorations until this day. On Sunday you will see thousands of useless fir trees in and around garbage bins. Holidays that started on the "Catholic" Christmas are now semi-officially ended.

M&F 2007 Calendar

One way for ad agencies to show how creative they are – make a creative calendar and send it as a gift to all your current and potential clients. They should appreciate your originality, creativity and sense of humor. Melekhov & Filyurin Ad Agency 2007 calendar is called “(Not) Standard places to put your ads”. Unlike many ad agencies calendars this one has a lot of humor and not much of glitz and glamour. I especially like these three pages.

Happy New Year!

I know it's over but better late then never. Anyway I plan to celebrate Russian "Old" New Year that is on the 14th of January due to the fact that Russian Orthodox Christman is on the 7th of January.

Since last year Russians have 10 days of undisturbed New Year and Christmas holidays from 31 December till 9 January. Even Putin was scared to death when he was signing the New Year Holidays Bill. Today is an official first working day of the year but many of my colleagues are still missing – they took extra days to spend full value vacations in Egypt and Thailand.

That was a long and hard decade. I will write on the marketing aspects of it later including my personal experiences.