UNCOUNTED SINCE 1932

TitleUNCOUNTED SINCE 1932
BrandUKRAINIAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
Product/ServiceUNCOUNTED SINCE 1932
Category B07. Use of Events & Stunts
Entrant GRES TODORCHUK PR Kiev, UKRAINE
Idea Creation GRES TODORCHUK PR Kiev, UKRAINE
PR GRES TODORCHUK PR Kiev, UKRAINE
Additional Company UKRAINIAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY Kyiv, UKRAINE
Credits
Name Company Position
Roman Tychkivskyy Ukrainian Leadership Academy CEO
Yarema Dukh Ukrainian Leadership Academy Head of Communications
Yaroslava Gres Gres Todorchuk PR CEO
Oleksandr Todorchuk Gres Todorchuk PR Creative Director
Yulia Solovey Gres Todorchuk PR Head of Content Departent
Vitta Lyahova Freelance/Individual Event Producer
Oleksandra Kosenko Gres Todorchuk PR Storyteller
Nikita Mekenzin Ukrainian Leadership Academy Director of Photography
Serhii Sofin Gres Todorchuk PR Designer
Iurii Kovryzhenko Freelance/Individual Chef
Vladimir Levis MVG Group Co-founder
Valerii Mykhailenko MVG Group Co-founder
Marta Mazurenko Smart Production Project Manager
Masha Shupova Freelance/Individual Photographer
Elina Krupskaya Gres Todorchuk PR PR Manager
Nikita Zavilinksij Freelance/Individual Photographer
Valentyn Kondratiuk Strumer Production Executive Producer

Why is this work relevant for PR?

For 27 years of its independence, Ukraine has tried to communicate the Holodomor to international audience, but used only classic formats of communication without enough media coverage. The world isn’t interested in the artificial 1932-33 famine made by the Soviet Union, because it has many tragedies of its own. The creative idea of Uncounted Since 1932 turned a local tragedy into the experience any person can relate to. 50,000,000+ impressions in 1 day, 1000 visitors from 20 countries. Covered by Politico and Deutsche Welle, praised by Members of the European Parliament, received invitations to held the event in 10 countries.

Background

Situation 2018 is the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor. But the world doesn’t pay attention to the 1932-33 famine, even though it took lives of over 7 million people in the very least. Regular Ukrainian campaigns devoted to it are confined to photo exhibitions and paid publications. What they lack is a strong creative idea that would make any person around the world able to relate to this local tragedy that happened almost a century ago. Brief The students of the Ukrainian Leadership Academy, as a new generation of youth, wanted to find an unconventional way to communicate all the horror of the Holodomor to the international audience. Objectives - Over 50,000,000 earned media impressions in 1 day - 1000 visitors of the restaurant - Involvement of opinion leaders (Members of European Parliament). - To change the way Ukraine as a country usually communicates about the topic of the Holodomor.

Describe the creative idea

To remind the world about the terrible tragedy, we used the only language understood by any person anywhere on the globe. The language of hunger. We opened a pop-up restaurant where you could actually taste the Holodomor. Only three dishes were served – pine cones soup, ground grass bread, and tree bark pancakes. This was the food Ukrainians had to eat during 1932-1933. In the memory of all victims, we called the restaurant “Uncounted Since 1932”. During the Holodomor, the Soviet Union forbade counting the deaths. So, the exact number of victims can be significantly higher than the estimate of 7 million. They remain unknown. Forgotten. Uncounted. The project communicated about the Holodomor not through the scary photos that very few want to look at, or terrifying statistics nobody wants to hear about. But through an opportunity to experience yourself what it was like to live during the famine.

Describe the strategy

Target audience: - Members of the European and Belgian Parliaments. - Representatives of the embassies and other stakeholders who could influence the way this topic is communicated internationally. - Wide European and Ukrainian audience, whose support is essential for the project. To place the Ukrainian tragedy within the Belgian and overall European context, we researched the media of the 1930s. And so, alongside tasting the food of Holodomor, visitors could read the European press and comics about Tintin (one of the most favorite Belgian characters) about the famine in the USSR. This way, we showed that the Holodomor was covered by the international media in the past, and it is only now that the events are forgotten. To make the project stand out from regular campaigns devoted to the Holodomor, we created the invitations that couldn’t go unnoticed, with actual ingredients from the times of the famine.

Describe the execution

We interviewed the Holodomor survivors and collected the ingredients they had to eat during the Holodomor. Based on their memories, a famous Ukrainian chef Iurii Kovryzhenko created three recipes. To preserve the authenticity of the idea, we delivered original Ukrainian ingredients to Belgium. For one day, students of the Ukrainian Leadership Academy opened a pop-up restaurant in Brussels, the political capital of Europe. The choice of locations was determined by our target audience: the Luxembourg Square in front of the European Parliament for the maximum reach of the MEPs, and the La Monnaie Square, one of the most popular tourist locations, to attract the international audience. Timeline 1-30 April – developing visual style for the project. 2-9 May – sending invitations for opinion leaders. 16 May – one-day activation in Brussels. Media relations.

List the results

- Over 50,000,000 earned media impressions in 1 day. - In a few hours, the restaurant was visited by over a thousand people from 20 countries, including the Members of European Parliament, Belgian bloggers and journalists. - 97% of visitors didn’t know about the Holodomor before Uncounted Since 1932. - Numerous media publications, including Politico and Deutsche Welle. - Warm social media response from opinion leaders, such as Members of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms and Petras Austrevicius, Member of the Belgian Parliament Georges Dallemagne. - Over 648 000 views of the Facebook video about Uncounted. - Invitations to hold the event from Ukrainian embassies in 10 countries of the world. - Invitations to present the project in the Parliament of Canada, at the 85th Commemoration of the Holodomor Symposium in Washington, and in the House of European History in Brussels (from the Mission of Ukraine to the EU).