2020-2021 was a hard time for retail. Offline shops were opening and closing alternately. Periodical lockdowns decreased the number of visitors several times and decreased the income of Ukrainian families which caused total savings at everything, except products.

Epicentr stayed partially opened within quarantine time, however, customers flow decreased significantly, working on separate periods when the other businesses were closed. Ukrainians considered such an exception not a fair one. Are they special?

Epicentr started to be mentioned more often in negative context. In Feb-Mar 2020 the level of overall negative mentioning increased significantly in comparison to pre-Covid-19 time. There were twice as many negative publications as positive ones with 16,04% negative (4 708 mentions) and 9,05% positive (2 674) and 74,90% neutral ( 22 129).

The Brand required social communications which would bring the Brand out of negative and “hate” to positive.

Large-scale exhibitions and events require a lot of construction and materials, most of which later end up in trash.

Environmental friendliness - the number one social value of Epicentr. Construction, yard works and households produce plenty of rubbish. Recycling traditions, sorting and upcycle are not formed in Ukraine - and it is a challenge accepted by Epicentr as its own social mission.

The company has been struggling for years for the ukrainians not to leave dumps behind when constructing and creating.

When creating ambitious exhibitions and events huge amounts of materials, constructions and banners are being used. Most of them are being dismantled and head to the dump.

We decided to change it and to transform a governmental cultural project to the first ever exhibition in the world which will be a zero-waste one.

We were interested in Epicentr’s audience - 7 million of ukrainians that make 63 million purchases annually in all Epicentr stores of the country and in a more narrow dimension in our suppliers. Where could they be found? Our answer - in Epicentr itself.

The Epicentr itself is a huge media-resource with its own advertising carriers: online platform that has 14 million visits per month , screens on territory of its trading centres, internal and external areas and of course shelves with goods that allow to reach its target audience by 100%.

The opportunities for social activities in 2021 were significantly limited by severe quarantine requirements - cancelled events, mass events as well. Advertising communications in their turn could hardly help when actions of the Brand are expected!

The first national exhibition and offline event in 2021 was Lesya Ukrainka: 150 names art project. The exhibition was expected as key event of the year. Epicenter sponsored an art project with a mission: to transform the exhibition into the first waste-free exhibition in the world.

This meant ensuring not only the sorting and disposal of garbage, but also the recycling and upcycling of all materials used in the exhibition. We had to figure out what to do with 450 square meters of banners, 80 square meters of fabric and curtains, 349 cubic meters of wood.

We have developed a unique designer collection of products from advertising banners and fabrics. Models of backpacks, tool bags, shoppers, notebook cases, fanny packs. Colours of each product are different, because different parts of the banners are used for sewing. Thus, each thing is one of a kind, unique work of art.

Epicentr’s event as the sponsor to the territory of exhibitional projects has brought tons of positive reputational results. Partnership with “Lesya Ukrainka: 150 names” art project has become the starting point for creation of its own project and news break which not only raised the wave of positive mentions and reviews but also doubled it.

From the beginning of the “Lesya Ukrainka: 150 names” art project the amount of media positive mentions regarding the first ever zero waste exhibition started to grow rapidly. For the first time in a long time positive mentions of the Company exceeded negative mentions. The planned indicators were overfulfilled by 222%.

Pacing designer items on the shelves, at online store, the promo-video on the screens of all trading centres we transferred the exposition to Epicentr’s territory which is a media platform with its own audience itself (5,5mln per month).