Successful licensing cases and updated media franchise portfolio presented by GPM Ads at the Moscow Licensing Summit

On September 5, 2024, Eduard Ayrapetyan, Managing Director of Licensing at GPM Ads (the sales house of Gazprom-Media Holding), and Victoria Blokhina, Senior Franchise Marketing Manager at GPM Ads, spoke about their successful licensing projects and presented new promising franchises at the Moscow Licensing Summit.

Over the past year, GPM Ads has achieved significant results in a number of licensing cases, demonstrating the effectiveness of licensing as a tool for engaging adult audiences and its appeal to retailers and manufacturers.

One of the standout projects was the collaboration between a popular brand of potato chips Moskovskiy Kartofel and the nation’s leading sports channel, Match TV. This partnership launched a large-scale 360° campaign that reached a wide audience both on TV (over 10,000,000 people¹) and in digital (over 9,200,000 people²). The gaming mechanics around a special line of branded chip packaging, sponsorship of soccer broadcasts, program integrations, graphic options, augmented reality, interactive elements on Smart TVs using QR codes, and brand ambassador Georgy Cherdantsev all contributed to the project’s success.

Eduard Ayrapetyan

Managing Director of Licensing, GPM Ads

A comprehensive marketing mix built around the licensed product allowed us to attract our target audience and broaden the reach of the advertising message. The campaign’s success was evidenced by a 42%³ growth of a key business indicator—potato chip sales—during the campaign period.

The success of adult licensing as a marketing tool has also been confirmed by the licensing cross-media campaign for Etagi based on the popular TNT sitcom “SashaTanya. To strengthen its leading position in the real estate market, the agency made one of TV’s most recognizable families the face of their campaign. The characters conveyed the agency’s key USPs in short videos (shorts) that aired as sponsorship bumpers in various TNT shows. The TV integration was complemented by licensed media products, including outdoor and digital banners, visual branding of the agency’s social media accounts, as well as print collateral, and dedicated radio spots.

Eduard Ayrapetyan

Managing Director of Licensing, GPM Ads

The show’s characters represent a positive pattern found in a typical Russian family, aligning well with Etagi’s target audience. By strategically choosing a media project, taking a creative approach in messaging, and achieving broad reach, we strengthened the emotional bond with the customer and even hit record metrics: brand search queries and website visits increased by 9.8%, transactions grew by 19.6%, and Top-of-Mind rose by 2.2%.⁴

Victoria Blokhina showcased the updated portfolio of Gazprom-Media Holding’s media franchises. New releases included “Titans (Titany)” and “The Emperor’s Treasures (Sokrovishcha Imperatora)”, which captivated viewers with their scale and originality; the highly-anticipated show “Star Dances (Zvezdnye Tantsy)” on TNT; and the new season of 2x2’s animated hit “Suspicious Owl (Podozritelnaya Sova)” for teens and adults.

In addition, the mascots of the Friday! channel were presented: the fashionable and travel-loving panda, Friday, and a new digital influencer, Chef Baton, along with his assistant, Osya the octopus. These and other popular GPM Ads brands will offer fresh solutions to enhance brand awareness and drive business growth.

Victoria Blokhina

Senior Franchise Marketing Manager at GPM Ads

Our projects cater to the core interests and passions of the adult audience: humor, sports, travel, cooking, and home improvement. This approach creates a warm emotional connection with the consumer and opens up vast product licensing opportunities for retailers and manufacturers.

¹Data from Mediascope, March–May 2024, All 18+, Match TV, Russia 100+

²Data from Yandex Metrics (Match TV, Sportbox), March–May 2024

³Data based on internal research by Moskovskiy Kartofel, March–April 2024, compared to the same period in 2023

⁴Data based on internal research by Etazhi, March 2024 vs May 2024