Travelmenu.ru, a Russian online travel startup specializing in package tours, took advantage of the Russian winter holiday season to increase its brand awareness using a bold parody of President Medvedev’s New Year’s greetings.
Released on December 19, the humorous video features the Russian President’s traditional greetings to the nation, revealing a behind-the-scene sea, sex and sun environment instead of the Kremlin view from where Medvedev’s address was officially supposed to have been broadcast.
With 6 million Russian Internet users having viewed the video clip on Youtube in three months, Travelmenu.ru’s campaign could count among the most notable successes so far of viral marketing in Russia.
An established element of almost any marketing strategy in the West, viral marketing has been tried thus far by only few companies in Russia, mostly Western ones, with relatively small budgets.
But the approach in Russia and Western Europe is basically the same. “Viral marketing is made of innovation, of bold themes such as sex, alcohol, politics, or of all these together – in a suggestive way, of course,” Travelmenu.ru CEO Katrin Buckenmaier said to East-West Digital News.
One difference in Russia, however, could be the approach to politics and politicians. “Our clip featuring Medvedev on a beach with sexy girls corresponded to topics that people had in mind at this time of the year. Our agency managed not to cross the line of a political video. In Europe, it could perhaps have been designed with a freer approach. Marketers do not risk prosecution in Europe when joking about politicians,” Buckenmaier believes.
Travelmenu.ru claims that its Medevedev parody campaign led to increase the site’s traffic up to five-fold while sales increased up to 250% in the days following the release of the video.
- RUSSIAN E-COMMERCE REPORT 2012 – The total volume of Russian online retail reached 310 billion rubles, a little more than $10 billion, in 2011, up 25% from the previous year. EWDN’s research study of Russian e-commerce, which includes analysis and recommendations on marketing tools for online retailers, will be available in April 2012. To receive free insights or to order the full version, please contact us at [email protected].
