THE POINT OF NO RETURN

TitleTHE POINT OF NO RETURN
BrandZNAK.COM
Product/ServiceONLINE NEWSPAPER ZNAK.COM
Category E02. Low Budget / High Impact Campaign
Entrant GREAT ADVERTISING GROUP St. Petersburg, RUSSIA
Idea Creation GREAT ADVERTISING GROUP St. Petersburg, RUSSIA
PR GREAT ADVERTISING GROUP St. Petersburg, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Dmitriy Makarov Great Advertising Group Creative Director
Andrey Danskov Great Advertising Group Creative Director
Oleg Tveritin Great Advertising Group Art Director
Dmitriy Assinovskiy Great Advertising Group Art Director
Marina Ginzburg Great Advertising Group Producer
Ilya Litnitskiy Great Advertising Group Account Director
Julia Pivneva Great Advertising Group Account Manager

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The development of technologies, their instant penetration into everyday life, changing ways that information is consumed - all this has led to new conditions for the implementation of communication projects different in format and quality. Communications are getting faster, the messages shorter. It’s important to create a situation that will resonate with people. Content will find its own way. “The Point of No Return” experience supports the general communication trend of storytelling, in which a viewer is immersed in a story of educational content rather than an advertising message.

Background

Exactly 100 years ago, on the night of July 17, 1918, Emperor Nicholas II, his wife, children and servants, were shot in the basement of a private house. Yekaterinburg became the place of the end of Russia’s monarchy. Yekaterinburg based online newspaper ZNAK.COM has come up with the idea of creating a notable point in their series of publications on the matter: create an event that goes beyond traditional journalism, an event that could attract the attention of the ordinary reader and the professional journalist. The project “The Point of No Return” was intended to strengthen ZNAK.COM's reputation as a federal media through the comprehension of the key historical event of the 20th century.

Describe the creative idea

On the 100 year anniversary of the murder of the Royal Family, we created an art installation not far from the murder site: “The Point of No Return.” The installation places the viewer on the line of fire at the center of the tragic event, inviting them to stand between the murders and the victims: 2 walls, 2 posters, and one point between them. The project emphasized that ZNAK.COM is against revolutionary changes and adheres to the vector of general humanism. This is why the project takes the view of a historical event as an act of unnecessary violence and excessive evil: the murder of a defenseless family with children cannot be justified by any “historical justice”.

Describe the strategy

The murder of the tsar is one of the sad identifying factors of the city, and therefore ZNAK.COM as a Yekaterinburg based media must be the source of information on the matter, not the aggregator. That is important for both TA segments –readers and journalist community. To attract readers, we have created a bright entry point to the topic, and for journalists - the informational source and the ground for discussion. To achieve our communication goal we have divided communication into 2 streams: Informing. Audience doesn’t entirely know facts about the tragic event. Thus, we aimed to create a powerful stream of Information About the event (a series of materials, publications, photos and videos). Involvement. Other part of the audience is not involved in the story. Thus, we initiated work on social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Vkontakte), distribution of Information through locals. Active commentary from eyewitnesses and employees of ZNAK.com

Describe the execution

Imagine - you’re going about your day, and you come across “The Point of No Return.” On one side of you are the victims, and on the other, the executioners. It’s an exact shot. And you’re a random witness directly in the line of fire. The installation was put up in the night between the 16th and 17th of July, on the date when the Bolsheviks shot the family of the last Russian emperor 100 years ago. The installation was placed in the only footpath to the site of the murder, where tens of thousands of practicing Orthodox members were making a pilgrimage that day. Social media posts began to appear early in the morning of July 17th - Yekaterinburg locals hurried to work. A large publication explaining the installation appeared on ZNAK.com and soon became the object of fan-like distribution by federal and regional media.

List the results

— Media Outreach Media Index: over 35 million people. The most coverage was provided by the news portals such as Meduza.io, The-Village.ru, Mail.ru, Znak.com, Afisha.ru. Live commentary and announcements from the scene were also covered by TV channel Rain and radio stations Moscow Echo, and Silver Rain. — Social Media Outreach: More Than 5 million people. The most coverage was provided by the social media accounts of public networks: Lentach, Rain, Bumaga and Afisha. Materials were liked and shared about 20 000 times, with around 1000 comments on each publication. Distribution by media type: — Distribution by federal and regional media: federal - 23%, regional - 77%. — Online and offline distribution: Internet - 55%, federal print media - 14%, regional print media - 31% — Distribution by originality of messages: original - 73%, reprints - 27%