Title	ROSE INDEX
Brand	THE VILLAGE
Product/Service	AN ONLINE MOSCOW MAGAZINE
Category	A07. Use of Real-time Data
Entrant	LEO BURNETT MOSCOW, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	LEO BURNETT MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Ilya Pryamilov	Leo Burnett Moscow	Creative Director
Yulia Grezina	Leo Burnett Moscow	Art Director
Alexey Kalyan	Leo Burnett Moscow	Copywritter
Dmitry Ulmer-Morozov	Freelance	Programmer

Why is this work relevant for Creative Data?

The site used data on rose prices from different flower shops in the city. More than 500 points were involved: the data was updated every hour, and the user saw the current picture of pricing during the holidays. The data helped to perform mechanical work-to find the cheapest roses in the city during the peak demand. This information was used in the creative mechanics: a Rose Exchange Rate Site helped to deal with the speculative growth of prices.

Background

Once a political holiday, March 8 or International Woman’s Day is now for Russians just an occasion to show their feelings to their loved ones and to please them with various gifts and flowers. As a rule, the latter are bought at the last moment and flower shops take an advantage of the rush and crank up the price. The Village, an online magazine for smart Moscow citizens, decided to fight this trend.

Describe the idea/data solution

Using the currency exchange rate sites as a model, The Village created a Rose Exchange Rate Site where the price of a single flower was tracked daily via a special algorithm, which analyzed more than 500 Moscow flower shops.

Describe the data driven strategy

From March 1st to March 8th, the result was updated every hour so readers could observe the alarmingly steady increase in price of a rose – and get directions or links to places where they could buy the cheapest bouquet in town.

Describe the creative use of data, or how the data enhanced the creative output

The data sets and their creative interpretation helped to evoke a massive response from the Russian-speaking audience on Facebook and in the media. As a result, hundreds of men safely bought bouquets at adequate prices and were able to please their loved ones. And unscrupulous sellers lost some customers.

List the data driven results

Massive posts in social media - people shared a link on site trying to share and help their friends to save money on flowers. Numerous media supported the idea. As a result thousands of sons, husbands and lovers ordered their roses on the internet in advance saving their money and causing some expected frustration among the greediest flowermongers. That’s how The Village proved their motto: spreading information that makes life in the city better.