OOH Agency Today — Brain Tank
by Sarah Druhan, OOH TODAY Journalist
At Brain Tank Creative in Kyiv, Ukraine, no marketing problem is too tough. Brain Tank prides themselves on their ability to “solve” the world of OOH advertising like one big math equation—creatively, simply, and reliably, using their “highly efficient engine” of a team to cut through all the noise like a hot knife through butter.
As much as it may surprise clients to know, Brain Tank’s guaranteed-solution lifestyle didn’t just come out of nowhere. The full-service communications agency, currently helmed by its founding partners Andrii Franchuk and Eugene Myroniuk, has been honing its craft since it was founded as a humble events agency in 2004. As for how this exceptional team got to where they are today, we turn now to co-founder and current Managing Partner for Strategy Eugene Myroniuk.
Please tell us about Brain Tank. How long have you been in business? Staffing? Size? Specialties? Billing? Regional Offices?
Me and my partners, Andrii Franchuk and Oleksiy Kulikov, have been in business for over 15 years. We started as an event agency, then began to engage in advertising, and expanded greatly. In 2019 we united all businesses into a group of companies called Brain Tank. Currently, Brain Tank has 3 offices in Ukraine, in Kyiv, as well as a representative office in Uzbekistan. Our regular clients on support are PepsiCo, Metro Cash & Carry, JDE, Philipp Morris International, and so on.
Brain Tank seems to bring a logical, systemic perspective to solving problems in out-of-home advertising. What else would you like brands and the OOH Industry to know about your shop?
In recent years, we have started to incorporate complex programming tools into the idea of outdoor advertising. As an example, we suggest looking at an advertising campaign for the Ukrainian residential complex Novopecherski Lypky.
This was a multi-trigger DOOH campaign, meaning that the media on our digital billboards for Novopecherski Lypky had a plot that was developed based on external conditions. The actions of the heroes onscreen, or the ‘Resident Community,’ were related to the current weather, time of day, and news. If it is morning, a child will be going to school. If later it rains in Kyiv, the ‘communication heroes’ will begin to open umbrellas and put on jackets. This accomplishment was an integration of classical digital instruments, television, PR instruments, and sales tactics, all into one campaign.
This multi-trigger campaign turned out to be very effective. We had a return of marketing investments of over 152%, especially impressive because we have more than 215 competitors only in Kyiv. The market is very huge and very strong, but entering this stage of Digital OOH and integrated advertising helped to get us where we are.
Do you work with clients directly and/or through agencies? What is the percentage breakdown?
As we are a complex full-service agency, we work with the clients directly.
Any comments or suggestions for OOH reps in approaching or working with your company?
We mainly work only with large media agencies, because they have the proper level of expertise and analytics, as well as access to the direct owners of the structures.
What differentiates your business from others?
Our business is maximally focused on achieving the business objectives of large corporations. At Brain Tank we roll out marketing campaigns based on frameworks, specifically the total connection planning framework. We are one of maybe three or four marketing agencies in Ukraine that use this network. Applying it helps us to understand how to read a client’s brief, how to get our objectives as well as how to solve tasks and get results.
How do you obtain new business? Share new business contact information. what do you think it is about your company that makes them come to you?
We never look for new clients, clients come to us only on the recommendation.
What is your most memorable new business pitch?
The last campaign we rolled out in Ukraine before the war was a national consumer promo (NCP) for the leaders of the soda and snacks market in Ukraine, Pepsi and Lays. The main part of this campaign was a virtual movie-themed game that took place in the ‘Pepsi & Lay’s Movie World.’ To advertise this game, we put up shopper marketing instruments like posters QR codes up in public stores, using in-store advertising to engage retail customers into our digital campaigns. This demonstrated Brain Tan’s strong shopper marketing expertise, and how we can incorporate outdoor OOH media into the overall marketing media mix. This integrated campaign was especially memorable because this campaign began before the war, in January, and finished up in March. Maybe we weren’t expected to keep going with it, but we did that campaign to the end.
For a showreel of Brain Tank’s best OOH campaigns, click here.
- Advertisement -
