CHALLENGE
- Enhance product awareness.
- Drive sales through maximizing reach in regions with the Magnit stores.
ABOUT
Mareven Food Central is a leading producer and seller of instant food products, operating in Russia and abroad.
SOLUTION
Today, consumers are overwhelmed with available options and flashy commercials. As a result, businesses have to get through the ad noise and find innovative ways to connect with their audience.
How can brands grab and hold attention of the consumers? Well, there is a tried-and-tested strategy in the food industry—releasing a limited edition. Following this approach, Rollton and one of Russia’s biggest retailers launched the collaboration called «Romeo and Juliet». Just ahead of gender-related holidays, a special collection of Romeo and Juliet sets made its way to the Magnit stores, featuring two new flavors: Carbonara («Carbonetti») and Bolognese («Bolognetti»).
The product targeted a broad demographic, including urban youth, students, and people interested in relationships, movies, TV series, and local news.
PROMOTION PLATFORMS
The main promotion platform for this campaign was VK, Russian social network with primarily younger audience, which aligned perfectly with our target demographic or campaign objectives. To better refine the audience, we targeted gender-related interests and keywords (relationships and love).
We also used super geo targeting, leveraging Yandex.Geoservices to connect and engage with the users located close to stores. Among the different types of ads on Yandex.Geoservices, «pins» and «banners» performed best. These are particularly good in larger cities and for boosting in-store purchases.
Of course, native integrations played a key role too. We leveraged seeding in relevant Telegram and top geo channels, as well as used ad integrations in influencer content.
ADS ON YANDEX.GEOSERVICES
INFLUENCERS
Today, VK Clips is one of the most popular formats. According to official data from VK, over 20 million users watch VK Clips daily, and the total views of these videos exceeds one billion every day. With this in mind, we paid great attention to working with influencers. It was essential to test how blogger collaborations would perform, because each influencer had different content styles, audiences, and reach. When TikTok was at its peak in Russia, the focus was on trends: it was necessary to post 3 to 4 trendy videos every day to get some reach. Today, with the reign of VK, the Arena team set out to crack the code for creating a successful video and figure out what makes it go viral on this platform.
HYPOTHESIS
The project team came up with a hypothesis that a “viral” video is one that gets more views than the follower count of an influencer who posted it. This kind of video has a specific set of characteristics:
These videos typically have higher engagement rates (ER) than most ads. Why? Because user interactions drive its promotion, not the other way around.
GOING VIRAL IS COOL
Going viral isn’t just cool, it’s also profitable. Because the cost per contact with the audience drops dramatically. Views on viral posts almost always cost less than one ruble.
INFLUENCERS: KEY TAKEAWAYS
The most successful viral videos tend to be between 25 to 60 seconds long. Product placement didn’t lower the number of views.
The most successful videos were those with noodle unboxing and preparation scenes—people were genuinely interested in the product’s features.
The highest engagement and click rates had videos with creative plots made by the influencers themselves.
The low cost per click of Dani Titov (influencer) supports the idea that regular audience penetration is beneficial (he posted content for Romeo and Juliet campaign alongside his wife, Nastya Titova).
THE SECRET SAUCE TO ROLLTON AND ARENA VIRALITY
Here’s the real secret: creativity that pops. A bold, unconventional concept doesn’t just capture attention, it connects you to your audience.
When people see themselves in the ad, they’re not just passive viewers—they’ll like it, share it, and spread the word. That’s how virality works.
Trust your influencers and don’t be afraid to try something new because they know what their audience wants.
Experiment with long formats too; some of the most viral videos were 30, even 40 seconds long.
When tracking KPIs, look beyond reach and views—it’s all about the cost per click (CPC). This number is a much stronger indicator of business impact.
By the way, humor is the true king of virality on VK: 30% of fun videos got huge engagement, while other categories didn’t get past 20%.
The campaign significantly exceeded KPIs, confirming the effectiveness of the strategy. The numbers speak for themselves.
Sales more than doubled compared to the previous year when the product launched without any media support. Moreover, the stocks were sold out two times faster than we planned.
Audience reach grew by 33%, signaling strong content resonance. Clicks jumped by 56%, showing true user engagement.
We beat expectations with a 40% lower CPC, plus every other cost metric came in well under forecast (CPU was 25% under, CTR was double the target).
- If you’re looking at cost-efficiency and quality, the Site Ad format on VK was the best option, delivering quick website visits.
- The Carousel format on VK worked wonders in telling the product’s story and highlighting its unique benefits and selling points.
- And don’t forget about seeding on Telegram: these ads drove extra reach and had a positive response from the Telegram audience.
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