Title	GET THROUGH THE HARDSHIPS, GET ONLINE
Brand	CLOUDCART BULGARIA
Product/Service	ONLINE SHOPS
Category	B03. Real-time Response
Entrant	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA
Idea Creation	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA
Media Placement	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA
PR	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA
Production	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA
Post Production	PROOF. Sofia, BULGARIA

Name	Company	Position
Angel Iskrev	proof.	Creative Director
Petko Kolarov	proof.	Copywriter
Yuliana Tsvetkova	proof.	Account Manager
Kristiyan Stefanov	proof.	Strategist
Presiyan Kirilov	proof.	Head of Strategy
Radoslav Panev	proof.	Graphic Designer
Sava Ahmakov	proof.	Client Service Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

In a country, where the digital integration of smb a comes down to Facebook presence, a social and health crisis quickly turns into an economic one. The quarantine was threatening the existence of brick-and-mortar stores. Stores were closing doors indefinitely. The first lifebelts were letting go of personnel and optimizing costs. But these solutions lasted small and medium businesses no more than a month. Sadly, for many of those Bulgarian businesses, these measures didn’t last long. Thus, the unemployment curve soared upwards. An average of 4 thousand people lost their job every day. Then

Background

CloudCart is an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to have an online presence and grow. On the 13th of March, the Bulgarian government put in place a State of Emergency to deal with the pandemic. CloudCart had to shift the tone of its communication to fit what was happening. The shift had to happen on the very next day. There was no place for aggressively targeted communication chasing sales and conversions, but rather a need for adequate reaction in aid of businesses.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To help businesses at their most difficult times, when even their country couldn’t. That is why we created the “get through the hardship, get online” platform. So CloudCart went entirely free for the whole period of lockdown. We assembled a crew that was dedicated to the cause 24/7 for two months. We built up 3 online stores to show small and midsize businesses how they could deal with the situation.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

We created a whole new business model that allowed people to build up their stores again for free and go online. With the help of a dedicated team that worked around the clock, businesses set up their platform to open as quickly as possible. We didn’t stop at that - To show that making an online store is not that difficult we chose 3 physical stores, which had closed doors on March 13th and opened them back up online. All of which, within 3 days and before the very eyes of the people.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We kept an eye on the development of the online shops for craft beer Kanaal, Arte studio and the artist Mila Lozanova in real time. This attracted attention on social media, and subsequently drew the eyes of online and mainstream media.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign reached 1 976 433 people. Over 50 media channels covered the campaign. Over 500 store were opened online, saving themselves from certain bankruptcy. Over 1200 new registrations were made, which was 153% more than last quarter.