Title	THIS IS A YOTA AD
Brand	SCARTEL LLC
Product/Service	YOTA - MOBILE OPERATOR
Category	G02. Challenger Brand
Entrant	FRIENDS Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	FRIENDS Moscow, RUSSIA
Media Placement	MEDIA INSTINCTGROUP Moscow, RUSSIA
Production	BAKEHOUSE Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Denis Eliseev	Friends Moscow	Creative Director
Maxim Ponomarev	Friends Moscow	Creative Director
Dmitry Maseykin	Friends Moscow	sr. art director
Andrey Popov	Friends Moscow	sr. copywriter
Katerina Ponomarenko	Friends Moscow	Account Director
Anastasia Alekseeva	Friends Moscow	Senior Account Manager
Egor Kozhedub	Friends Moscow	Head of the Strategic Department
Maxim Korostelev	Friends Moscow	Head of Production Department
Kirill Nechesa	Friends Moscow	Digital producer
Nikolay Shigaev	Friends Moscow	senior designer

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

In a 30-second spot there is no plot, no packshot, no CG, no actors or celebrities, no music or any other sound – no bullshit. Just cyan background and copy – «This is a YOTA ad». YOTA is a small mobile carrier without irritating services: no spam, no mailings and no special offers. While other brands are trying to sell you a better life and endless benefits, YOTA made an ad that suited its philosophy. The creative approach was to interpret the goal as literally as possible: if the ad is supposed to increase brand awareness, it shouldn’t contain anything but the brand. This choice was deliberate: it reflects the principle that YOTA uses when developing products – «nothing excessive». We attracting attention to the brand by using absurdly straightforward advertising that doesn’t tell people anything but the most important – they see a YOTA ad.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

YOTA is a challenger brand on the Russian telecom market, the smallest of the federal providers. The market is owned by «The Big Four» – largest players with an aggregated market share of over 95%. Positions on the market hardly shifted in recent years: services penetration was close to 200% of Russian population and big brands had a very consistent media presence – telco was the most aggressively advertised category in the country. YOTA had to find ways to increase its subscriber base, even though the audience had already been divided between the competitors with much bigger budgets. YOTA was twice less known than the category leaders, so the only way to succeed was by achieving a significant increase in brand awareness – this was the main objective of the campaign.

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

We used an extremely minimalistic and innovative execution – only cyan color and straightforward copy – «This is a YOTA ad». Our decision to not include any sound in video formats was instrumental to the effect on TV viewers. TV advertising clutter subjects a person to an endless stream of loud noises and music; and sudden silence is such an abrupt change that it involuntarily grabs attention. We anticipated that even people who look away during the ad break will turn back towards the screen. And it worked! Our TV spots provoked discussion on social media, users started to create their own versions of YOTA ad on TV, some of which became memes. we received tonns of UGC's and realized best ones on TV. Even other brands started to imitate our ad in their communities in social networks.