This promotional campaign combines key elements:

is an unexpected way to target

uses for the involvement of new digital tools

provides a unique user experience

takes place in real time

has several levels of promotion activity

publicity has

achieves results

Listeners were invited to take part in an interactive treasure hunt using a digital tool – the unique PhonoPaper mobile app which can encode sounds as images, and vice-versa. Sounds of the City was launched on a popular daily radio show in Ekaterinburg, which broadcast a live presentation about PhonoPaper and provided ongoing support to the promotional campaign.

Encoded messages were put up in parts of the city frequented by the target audience. Clues were broadcast on the radio, and listeners had to work out where the messages were, go and find them, and use PhonoPaper to decode the images back into audio files containing the answers to the questions asked on air. There were prizes for the most correct answers, and the first person to send in the right answers to all the questions was awarded a special prize by NORD, in one of whose stores the final message was located.

With a total campaign budget of USD 2,000: 33,000 people took part over the two weeks; there were around 100 downloads of PhonoPaper a day; the earned media reached more than 130,000 people; and footfall at NORD stores rose by 12%.