The technology behind the banner ads and 3M’s invention in inherently the same, but the execution is what makes all the difference. 3M also gives its users the ability to customise​ their usage of the technology i.e. by creating, managing, and deleting stickers according to each user’s convenience.

In our opinion, the biggest reason for this campaign success is its power of creating a sense of familiarity with the target audience. Furthermore, in a world where people forget 40% of what they learn in 20 minutes, online post-its are more of a necessity, than a privilege.

CREDITS
Client: 3M
Brand: Post It notes
Advertising Agency: Proximity Russia
Marketing Supervisor: Sergey Smolentsev
Marketing Coordinator: Yulia Smirnova
Creative Director: Andrew Kontra
Senior Copywriters: Polina Zabrodskaya, Anna Migaleva
Senior Art Director: Fernando Muto
Business Development Director: Mikhail Vdovin
Digital Director: Alexander Makarovsky
Senior Account Manager: Polina Zvereva
Digital Production House: Indee Interactive
Producer: Alexey Zinchenko
UI Designer: Egor Bernikov
Coders: Arina Vernidub, Andrey Zakurdaev, Oleg Nikanorov

This Ad campaign is about:
Proximity, Russia, 3M, Post-it notes, Technology, Digital Campaign, Digital Innovation, Retargeted banner ads

In 2016, Uber and Proximity (BBDO Russia Group) launched UberSEARCH — an experimental way to search for missing children in a big city by placing portraits of the missing ones on cars. The campaign resulted in finding Yana, one of the missing children.
A lot of Russian car owners put attention-grabbing visual art on their vehicles, not only to show-off, but also against car thieves. Cars with artworks attract so much attention that in case they get stolen most probably they will be found. But posters of missing children and search campaigns often go unnoticed, while according to the Russian Missing Children Organization, 70% of success in search for missing children depends on finding witnesses.
Uber teamed up with Proximity (BBDO Russia Group) to use car art to attract the attention of potential witnesses and help to find children. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and Missing Children Organization provided cases of three missing children. Their portraits were then placed on Uber partners cars, whose owners volunteered to help to find the children.

“In Russia, photos of missing children are often displayed in very poor quality, and traditional posters have a very limited reach. We asked artists to draw eye-catching artworks based on the photos given by the police, and instead of using airbrush and painting the cars, we used printed car stickers to place these artworks on Uber partners cars. Thus we decreased the time and money spent on production while ensuring the eye-catchiness of the artworks”, said Proximity representative.

Uber also sent out notifications through its app with the information about the UberSEARCH campaign.

In less than 2 hours after the launch the faces of the missing children appeared on the most popular Russian websites, were featured on federal TV channels and kicked off conversations and posts across social media platforms. The campaign helped the police to locate the whereabouts of Yana, one of the three missing children UberSEARCH searched for. Yana was then found and is now safe.

“Our team was very unusual, but it worked! We also received an inquiry from another transportation service to join the project on a volunteer basis”, said Dmitry Vtorov, Head of the Missing Children Organization.

In Russia, the UberSearch campaign ran as UberPOISK, ‘poisk’ being the transliteration of the Russian ‘поиск’ which means ‘search’.

Credits-
Client: Uber
Head of communications in Russia and CIS — Evgeniya Shipova
Marketing manager — Kateryna Khomych, Evgeniya Tabakova, Kseniya Stepanova
Advertising Agency: Proximity (BBDO Russia Group)
Agency website
Creative director — Mihai Coliban
Acting creative director — Ilya Andreyev
Copywriter — Yura Kabasin
Art director — Kin Loong Lee (Sean)
Designer — Julia Belyakova
Account director — Alexander Makarovsky
Account manager — Alena Zhukova
Project manager — Anza Randriambeloson
Producer — Valery Gorokhov

Production
Illustrations — Bang Bang Studio
Videо director — Alexey Belov
DOP — Konstantin Mazov
Editing — Yurii Karih