A case study by Friday! and Sovcombank: How to attract 5 million viewers to a fur coats giveaway

At the end of 2023, the interactive pre-New Year show “Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) aired on the Friday! and Saturday! channels. The show was created in collaboration with Gazprom-Media Sales House and agencies PHD and Fuse MDG for the Halva installment card.

Idea

In December 2023, fur coats became an ultra-fashionable trend on social media: videos of young women in fur coats using the hashtag #SlavicGirl received over 600 million views. The project team decided to leverage the image and aesthetics of the fur coat as a “switch” from pragmatic consumption and activate consumption at the “I Want It” level: “This is exactly what consumers can afford less and less in the current context of economic frugality, yet crave more and more.” This insight became the basis for the project and allowed the interactive show “Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) to convey to the audience that with the Halva installment card, they can indulge in desired purchases and continue to delight themselves and their loved ones with gifts even before the New Year’s Eve.

Mechanics

In December, “Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) was launched on Friday! and Saturday!. Broadcasts from the show aired every Friday on both channels. The host, Roman Kagramanov, surrounded by racks of colorful eco-fur coats, would select one for the giveaway and present it in his signature style.

Anyone who had a Halva card could participate in the giveaway. To do this, they just needed to scan the QR code on the TV screen, go to the project landing page, click the “I want a fur coat!” button, and make purchases using the card. Those who didn’t have a Halva card could apply for one on the project’s landing page.

Anastasia Bossert

Account Director, Fuse MDG

While creating branded content together with the channels and the client, we aimed to find an unusual, creative solution that would not only capture the viewer’s attention, but also engage the audience in an interactive application for a card. We were able to provide TV viewers with a positive and memorable brand interaction experience and created an original project. It’s one of those cases where you’d be happy to participate yourself!

Registration and participation in the giveaway weren’t limited to the “Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) broadcasts. To ensure as many viewers as possible had a chance to win a fur coat, graphic bumpers and TV stories were aired throughout the week on Friday! and Saturday!. Those featured a QR code that could be scanned to allow the viewer join the giveaway.

Results

The project creators sparked a desire for consumption with the Halva card, dubbing this consumer phenomenon “fur coat hypnosis”. The reach of the special broadcasts from the “Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) on the two channels totaled 5.4 million unique TV viewers. This included 4.4 million viewers on Friday!, and 1 million on Saturday!.

The TV airtime reached 34.6 million contacts with the target audience, and the unique reach of sponsored options was 26% of the TA (MediaScope, Russia 100+, November–December 2023, Friday! and Saturday! channels, All 30–50 AB, 10:00–23:00). Thanks to the QR code scanning mechanism and subsequent purchases to participate in the fur coat giveaway, the number of transactions made by viewers of Friday! and Saturday! using Halva cards far exceeded the brand team’s expectations.

Daria Kontorova

Marketing Director, Saturday!

We, the channel team, love this project a lot. It turned out to be not only flashy, but also effective. For example, if you analyze the reach across both channels simultaneously, the audience overlap is only 2%. This means that simultaneous placement on Friday! and Saturday! provides additional reach to the client’s brand knowledge.

Svetlana Dorogonova

Head of Sales and Communications for the Friday!, 2x2, TV-3, and Saturday! TV Channels of Gazprom-Media Sales House

“Shubokhranilishche” (Fur Coat Vault) is a fresh and original idea that allowed us to capture the target audience’s attention for the bank’s flagship product. It’s important to note that this is also a very technical and sophisticated case. We focused on audience trends and insights, launched the campaign on two TV channels simultaneously, and used interactive mechanics to not only reach the audience, but exceed our KPI goals.

Karina Samonina

Head of Advertising Materials Production, Sovcombank

I can say that at some point, this project became an island of humor and lightness in the pre-New Year period, when you need to wrap up all your tasks. The creative concept, the presentation, and Roma’s delivery were extremely energizing, and quite a few lines from the script became catchphrases. The sheer amount of jokes in such a short program duration is an achievement in itself, I believe. This is one of those cases where the entire team is fully inspired and energized, so the results were not long in coming.