ANTYFEST

TitleANTYFEST
BrandURAL MUSIC NIGHT FESTIVAL
Product/ServiceMUSIC FESTIVAL
Category B04. Content Creation & Production
Entrant VOSKHOD Ekaterinburg, RUSSIA
Idea Creation VOSKHOD Ekaterinburg, RUSSIA
Media Placement VOSKHOD Ekaterinburg, RUSSIA
PR VOSKHOD Ekaterinburg, RUSSIA
Production SNYATO NAMI Yekaterinburg, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Andrey Gubaydullin Voskhod Creative Director
Anton Rozhin Voskhod Creative Director
Anastasiya Maximova Voskhod Copywriter
Islom Gulyamov Voskhod Copywriter
Dmitry Maslakov Voskhod Digital Creative Director
Liliya Zagidullina Voskhod Web Designer
Vasiliy Tsykin Voskhod Technical Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Ural Music Night (UMN), an annual Russian music event, has united 10 festivals all around the world and made them happen through ANTYfest. UMN performs the role of the “idea leader” of the international initiative. The project is aimed to support the music festivals community during the quarantine time. On the one hand, it unites music fans and gives them the sorely missed atmosphere and digital experience of a music gig. It entertains and educates, telling the audience about music events around the world. On the other hand, it attracts attention and helps the industry heavily damaged by the pandemic.

Background

The pandemic forced all music events around the world to be cancelled or postponed indefinitely. Musicians had to switch online, and since that the Internet has been flooded with live-streaming home-based concerts and pre-recorded shows. It’s a great way out of the situation, yet there’s almost nothing to replace the feeling of a live offline gig. Initial excitement connected with the new format of music shows gradually faded, and people got bored. At the same time, the industry of music festivals has suffered immensely because of the social distancing regulations.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The idea was to recreate the spirit of the crowd with those who don’t have to follow the rules of lockdown. Ants are social insects that demonstrate human-like principles of cooperation. While this year the music industry is on hold, festivals are looking forward to staying in touch with their fans. Ural Music Night united 10 music festivals from Russia, the Netherlands, Slovakia, South Korea, Latvia, Israel, Nigeria and Serbia to participate in a “macro-scale” music event with ants and made them happen — in the only way possible during this time.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The strategy is to help the music festivals happen, and to give the audience the experience of the festival vibe and tools to support the suffering festival community. Ural Music Night performs the role of the “idea leader” of the international initiative. The festival organized an online concert in a brand new digital format and united music community during the time of all Covid-19 limitations and regulations.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The project pre-launched on August 30 with a broadcast of a 5-hour concert. 20 international music bands were performing live to 8000 actual farm-grown ants.11 micro-scale replica sets of the 11 participating festivals were hand-made to host actual ants. Real photos and construction plans were used to recreate the stages and their surroundings. On August 31, the website was launched. It is a kind of an “ant-nest” where you can “travel” around the map of festivals, learn about them, buy their merch and donate money to them. Or just simply entertain yourself watching the 11 recap videos with partying ants, remembering the good old days and making plans for future trips.

List the results (30% of vote)

The online concert attracted 200k viewers from 45 countries. The project got featured in an extraordinary number of media publications all over the globe (400+). Other media & PR results include: 117M media impressions and 100% positive response. ANTYfest is a way for the participating festivals to attract attention to their quarantine-related problems. They were able to contact their governments and sponsors and demonstrate the international initiative. The result was additional financial support. $194K was collected in the course of the 1st month since the launch.