Yandex Taxi national advertising campaign

Background

In a highly competitive Russian taxi market, Yandex.Taxi was fighting to maintain and expand its market share. To drive growth, the company needed to attract new drivers from different professions and emphasize the benefits of working with the platform.

As a senior designer at Yandex, I was given the responsibility of art directing this project. My role was to collaborate with the creative team and external production partners to create a captivating federal campaign. The goal was to reach our target audience with a 10-second commercial for TV and YouTube, plus key visuals for landing pages and paid web adverts. The challenge was to emphasize the flexibility and income potential of working as a Yandex.Taxi driver and improve upon the results of the previous campaign.

Process

Research and analysis: As part of the creative team, which included a creative director, copywriter, and myself, we analyzed the results of the previous campaign. We identified the strongest attributes, such as a flexible schedule and part-time work opportunities, and used these insights to develop an updated campaign concept.

Concept development: During the development of the campaign's heroes, I employed a creative approach, backed by data from our research team, to effectively showcase the benefits of working as a Yandex.Taxi driver. Utilizing Avito, a prominent Russian bulletin board, I pinpointed real-life individuals who epitomized potential drivers and immersed myself in their lifestyles, interests, and aspirations to construct authentic, compelling personas. By blending real-life inspiration with research data, I developed thoroughly-worked-out heroes that had the potential to connect with our target audience. This approach not only facilitated clearer communication of our idea to the Marketing Director but also streamlined the production phase.

Pre-production: I led the creative aspects, writing creative briefs for each department based on our research. I collaborated with a casting agency to select actors, worked with location scouts to find suitable shooting locations, and coordinated with producers, the photographer, and the film director to prepare for the production phase.

Photoshoot and filming: I worked closely with the photographer, set designer, and film crew to ensure the visual materials aligned with the campaign objectives and captured the essence of each driver persona.

Post-production: After the shooting process, I collaborated with retouchers to refine the images and ensure they were ready for the campaign.

Results

The new campaign was a resounding success, yielding impressive results:

• Attracted 4.9k new drivers to the Yandex.Taxi service.
• Expanded the Moscow funnel by 15% (100k people).
• Achieved a TV reach of 41M and a YouTube reach of 17M.
• Increased video views by 1.5 times compared to the prior campaign.

Leveraging data-driven insights and a creative approach, our team crafted a campaign that effectively engaged the target audience and significantly contributed to the expansion of Yandex.Taxi's driver base.