1. The ad that stands in for a law that should be.

The Family Matters psychological aid centre in Russia had a problem. “In Russia, people believe that no one should interfere in someone else’s problems.

For many victims of domestic violence it means a death sentence.”

It’s a problem that family aid centres in most countries share.

“He beats me means he loves me,” is commonly used to excuse for domestic violence in Russia. There are no statistics for its victims nor any legislation against it. Even witnesses don’t get involved. “Lovers’ tiffs are easily made up again,” is the prevailing opinion. According to an independent study, almost no Russians realise that such an attitude causes thousands of deaths each year.

BBDO Russia had a complex problem to solve. So the agency created a 360 video whose story depends on viewer’s choice. At first, the viewer sees a woman sitting with her head turned away and follows the text to see one side of the story. The text leads a camera right around the room past a man sitting opposite her. It is clear that the home is not a happy one, but there are no visible signs of violence and the camera brings the viewer back to the original scene. If the viewer plays the video again, the woman turns to look at the camera. The viewer sees a silent cry for help – a black eye.

“Our video is purposely lacking action,” explained Kirill Tsytkin, BBDO copywriter. “In the first second of the video, you see a woman turning her eyes from the camera and text extending out of view. You can stay with the woman or follow the text. However, whatever you choose, you’ll have to watch the video again to see the story from all sides.”

Credits:

Agency: BBDO Russia Group

Nikolay Megvelidze: Chief creative director

Alexey Starodubov: Deputy creative director

Kirill Tsytkin: Copywriter

Sofya Nadezhina: Art director

Boris Anisonyn: TV production director

Valery Gorokhov: Senior producer

Boris Sorokin: Business development manager

Maxim Popov: Post production

Family Matters founder: Tatyana Orlova

 2. The campaign that borrows other advertisers’ disclaimers.

In Russia, as in many other countries, commercials in certain categories, like real estate and pharma, must contain legal information – the so called disclaimer: license number, legal address, age restrictions, etc.

In order to minimise the amount of ad spend they have to “waste” on this part of their radio ad, many advertisers fit the information in turbo mode style, with the voiceover sped up.

This practice gave BBDO Russia Group an idea for client, MTS (integrated MTS 4G internet). The agency bought the shortest radio lengths possible and positioned them immediately after the turbo read “tails” of ads with disclaimers. The MTS copy read, “4G Internet by MTS – super-fast Internet. You can’t tell about it faster.”

As a result, the ad “tails” became a part of the MTS advertisements.  BBDO Russia Group and MTS achieved impactful messages at minimal costs by using other brands’ “seconds”.

Credits:

Agency: BBDO Russia Group

Chief creative director — Nikolay Megvelidze

Deputy creative director — Alexey Starodubov

Managing director — Vlada Obukhova

Senior account manager — Luiza Vasyutina

Strategic planning manager — Nikita Nikiforov

Business development manager — Boris Sorokin

TV production studio director — Kirill Kulygin

Senior TV studio manager — Andrey Belov

MTS

Head of marketing communications department — Maria Yakovleva

Marketing communications director — Natalya Glagoleva

Marketing communications department group head — Yaroslav Smirnov