ELEUSIS

TitleELEUSIS
BrandMTS KION
Product/ServiceTHE KION ONLINE CINEMA
Category A02. Fiction & Non-Fiction Films: 5-30 minutes
Entrant ZEBRA HERO Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation ZEBRA HERO Moscow, RUSSIA
Media Placement MTS Moscow, RUSSIA
Production ZEBRA HERO Moscow, RUSSIA
Post Production ZEBRA HERO Moscow, RUSSIA
Post Production 2 2332 Kiev, UKRAINE
Credits
Name Company Position
IVAN DORN Zebra Hero IVAN DORN
ANDZEJ GAVRISS Zebra Hero Director
ANDZEJ GAVRISS Zebra Hero WRITTEN BY
ELNARA IALALTDINOVA Zebra Hero WRITTEN BY
ELNARA IALALTDINOVA Zebra Hero CREATIVE PRODUCER
BULAT KARIPOV Zebra Hero WRITTEN BY
JACOB MOLLER Zebra Hero DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
JULIJA FRICSONE GAVRISS Zebra Hero PRODUCTION DESIGNER
ANNA BOKINA Zebra Hero PRODUCER
ARTEM TSAREGORODTSEV Zebra Hero EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
ANDREY PAOUKOV Zebra Hero EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
LENA SAMOILOVA Zebra Hero EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
KSENIYA TROPAREVSKAYA Zebra Hero Financial Officer
MARIA YAKOVLEVA MTS KION EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
VALERIY KOPYTIN MTS KION EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
NIKOLAY VERSTIN MTS KION EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
DASHA DERIAGINA 2332 FILMS PRODUCER
SASHA CHERNIYAVSKIY 2332 FILMS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
DAVID GESSLBAUER 2332 FILMS Editor
RAPHAEL DARGENT 2332 FILMS Composer
Julian Holzapfel 2332 FILMS Sound Designer
MATT OSBORN 2332 FILMS COLOR GRADE
MARGARITA SHEKEL 2332 FILMS COSTUME DESIGNER
DASHA TAIVAS 2332 FILMS HEAD OF HMU
KRISTINA ILYINA 2332 FILMS 1AD

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

It is a short horror film that brings up the topic of creative crisis, and poses a question to the viewer: where is the limit that cannot be transcended in the name of art?

Background

MTS is the largest mobile operators in Russia with an advanced digital service ecosystem. In 2021, the brand introduced a new service: the MTS KION online cinema. The service is using a subscription model; however 40% of young Russians prefer to watch pirate content. The goal of MTS KION was to tell its target audience that the online cinema will offer interesting content worth paying for. In order to attract subscriptions and direct the viewers’ attention to its proprietary content, MTS KION decided to shoot fiction films and publish them on a free YouTube channel. ELEUSIS, a horror fiction, was one of such films, targeting a younger audience. Ivan Dorn, a popular singer, played the lead. The film became his cinema debut.

Describe the creative idea

It is a horror film about a musician pulling through a creative crisis and his own hit song that became his darkest nightmare. He found himself in a mysterious sanatorium ELEUSIS that promises him creative reemergence. Welcome to the world of suspicious servants, missing patients and night terrors. All this is just an orchestration for the final ritual…

Describe the strategy

In order to attract subscriptions and direct the viewers’ attention to its proprietary content, MTS KION decided to shoot fiction films and publish them on a free YouTube channel. ELEUSIS, a horror fiction, was one of such films, targeting a younger audience. Ivan Dorn, a popular singer, played the lead. The brand intentionally decided against product integrations into the story with only the brand logo featured as the studio. This helped establish the brand as a high-quality content creator and provider. MTS presented a series of short films called Musicians’ Nightmares. The series consists of 4 mystery thrillers based on true fears of famous musicians who starred as themselves.

Describe the execution

ELEUSIS is one of four horror films made for this project. A week before the first online performance, the brand held an offline performance in order to fuel the hype through social media influencers. Afterwards, the films were published on the brand’s YouTube channel. There was also a supporting campaign with announcements in the influencers’ social media accounts, publications in the relevant media outlets, and promotion of the project’s own social media presence.

Describe the outcome

The film received 300,000 organic views and over 600 comments on YouTube in the first week. The main media that are relevant among our target audience wrote about the project: Kinopoisk (the main Russian media about cinema), Meduza.io, GQ Russia, Vogue Ukraine, Glamor Russia, The Flow, etc. Many major bloggers spoke about the project, such as TV presenter Alexander Gudkov (1.8 million followers on Instagram), blogger Danila Poperechny (1.6 million followers), blogger Maria Minogarova (1.2 million followers), etc. According to the analytics of the movie on YouTube, the movie's likability was 96%, and 83% of viewers were our target audience (44% of viewers aged 18 to 24, 39% - from 25 to 34).