Data shows: more than 70% of those flying out of Moscow, were born and raised in other Russian cities. These people often avoid visiting their childhood towns, while regularly vacationing abroad. The solution was to unlock their sense of obligation to visit their family and friends in regional Russia, utilising the power of nostalgia. Thanks to Soviet housing program, Russians live in similar concrete blocks — from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific — and just by showing 5 types of these houses, we resonated with almost everyone.

It has always been a taboo for Russian advertising to show the bitter but true reality of Russia — Khrushchev-era housing blocks and dying villages. By showing this side of Russia, Utair provoked a media storm: ordinary people, bloggers and professionals began to profess their love for the campaign, while pro-government media accused Utair of going for shock value.

Data shows: more than 70% of those flying out of Moscow, were born and raised in other Russian cities. These people often avoid visiting their childhood towns, while regularly vacationing abroad. They simply become jaded by the big city and lose contact with their loved ones. The solution was to unlock their sense of obligation to visit their family and friends in regional Russia, removing the stigma of such trips and utilising the power of nostalgia. Indeed, nothing holds such a firm and stable emotional hold over us as places and people from our childhood.

Every Russian has a special place, where they belong. And no matter how this place looks like, it's something we have an emotional connection with. And there are people who still live there and wait for us to come. As a regional carrier, Utair helps simply to get there, where you belong.

Insight: After moving to the affluent Moscow, people start feeling ashamed of their modest provincial origins, while spending a vacation abroad is a socially approved behavior.

Key message: Going where you belong is a lot more emotional than foreign trips.

While pro-government media report on unprecedented economic success, 80% of Russia (including population of the cities where Utair flies) still lives in post-apocalyptic Soviet dystopia. By showing the unadorned truth of life and sparking the conversation around it, we deliberately divided our society in two: Moscow natives and pro-government media derided the campaign, accusing Utair of going for shock value, while people who had moved to Moscow from the province were raving with praise as they recognized their hometowns. And these people are, in fact, Utair's target audience.

Integrated campaign featured outdoor, print, web, film and experiential.

We sparked a conversation around the campaign by recruiting opinion leaders from both camps — native Muscovites and those who moved to Moscow from province. They expressed their polarised opinions, and after the first wave of outrage in the pro-government media, ordinary people, bloggers, and professionals began fiercely defending the company in comments, on social media, and on the radio. Artemiy Lebedev, one of Russia’s top bloggers (1.5 mln readers a month) and a well-known global traveler (ranked 24th in the world) wrote an emotional apology for Utair: “Yeah it’s s**t, but it’s the s**t that we all love and were raised with”.

Web users immediately started generating memes — and did so mostly in good humor. The campaign even provoked an organic social media flashmob: people started uploading photos of their own childhood homes.

We tried to do our best to support this confrontation, and it worked out.

Business: As for October, 2018, Utair increased the revenue by 2.2 billion rubles (+5.2%), compared with 9 months of 2017. Revenue rose to 45.4 billion rubles, as passenger traffic increased by 5%. Seat Occupancy Rate increased by 4.6 percentage points to 80.1%.

Marketing: With this campaign, Utair jumped from 5th to 2nd place regarding awareness (+18%), and consideration for the brand doubled (+100%). The metric "Brand understands the country and the people" increased by 4 percentage points.

Social: Utair provoked a media storm: ordinary people, bloggers and professionals began to profess their love for the campaign, while pro-government media accused Utair of going for shock value. The campaign even provoked an organic social media flashmob: people started uploading photos of their own childhood homes. The campaign generated 124 mil impressions.