
Agency	Initiative
Creative head	Lobov Ivan
Author of idea	Lobov Ivan, Lopukhin Artem, Shinelko Olesya, Antipova Olga
Product	B2B services
Description	In a country plagued with corruption and bureaucracy, Beeline, Russia's leading Mobile Operator, wanted to inspire a future generation of technology entrepreneurs. In a functional category where credibility is the biggest barrier ? how could we stand out with real understanding about entrepreneurs' needs? Our insight centred on the fact that being an entrepreneur is lonely ? no one really understands your challenges except other entrepreneurs. And our challenge was there are not many entrepreneurs in Russia the biggest icons being abroad. Therefore we crossed the globe visiting major technology fairs and conferences and asked the presenting entrepreneurs if they would be prepared to conduct an interview giving their advice to Russian entrepreneurs. All the ones included in our project were happy to do this free of charge, wanting instead to give something back to the future generation. We created a branded YouTube Channel featuring more than 50 tech CEOs/Founders - including Apple, Tumblr, Roxio and Linkedin - sharing their wisdom and experience without charging a cent. We edited each interview into 3 minute short-form cuts, preferring this to longer 'TED-style' videos due to our time-poor and frankly lazy audience. Each video's look and feel followed the distinctive yellow and black of Beeline without being overly branded. The contributors' content was deliberately available only in Russian to combine authenticity with practicality as our entrepreneurs are less likely to have further education than their Global counterparts and many have poor English. Outcome Despite the Russian speaking population making up just 2.8% of the online audience, we achieved over 3 million views creating a Global equivalent of 100m+ impressions. Hundreds of people added comments and we created a real buzz in the entrepreneur hubs across Moscow and other major Russian cities. In a saturated and mature market and despite massive spending competitors, Beeline added 400,000 customers during the campaign period and increased mobile data traffic by 25% year-on-year. Our videos are helping to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to start their companies in Russia rather than looking abroad.
Advertiser	VimpelCom Ltd.
Team members	Anna Yakovleva - Initiative Managing Director James May - Initiative Chief Strategy Officer Artem Lopukhin - Initiative Client Service Director Ivan Lobov - Initiative Digital Director Olga Antipova - Initiative Account Director Olesya Shinelko - Initiative Project Leader Evgeny Navolochny - Initiative Digital Group Head Julia Koneva - Vimpelcom Director Of Marketing For The Mass Market/Communications And Brand Management Andrey Skripkin - Vimpelcom Chief Of Media Department Natalya Krivchanskaya - Vimpelcom Advertising Campaigns Development Department Head Ekaterina Aleynikova - Vimpelcom Manager Of Media Department Aleksandr Krylov - Vimpelcom Senior Manager/Advertising Campaigns Development Department Polina Abdullina – Rosbusinessconsulting RBC Group Head Of Special Projects Dmitry Rizhov - Rosbusinessconsulting RBC Group Deputy Chief Editor Vladimir Ponizovskiy - Panterafilms Production Editor

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