Samolet grew from a single developer brand into more than 20 products and digital services for life in the city, and customers stopped understanding what the company stood for. Loyalty dropped, and new users found it hard to navigate the range. Before launching its new app, Samolet needed one idea that would carry all 20 products: a better quality of life. As brand director, I built the campaign from research to the central idea and the choice of channels, and led it through three acts: an AI chatbot, a pop-up Life Center and a five-part documentary series.
To understand what actually improves people's lives, we ran a study with a leading sociology university at a quarter of the market price, looking at what matters to different customer segments. It mapped six areas that matter most: health, home, finances, relationships, career and mental health. Most people already know what their better life looks like. They keep putting it off until the renovation is finished, the salary goes up or next Monday comes. The idea came out of this directly: a better life starts now, without waiting for a sign.
The campaign spoke one visual language in every channel: eight 3D smileys for the emotions people bring into a conversation, the campaign blue and CoFo Sans type.
Billboards and TV ads were the obvious channels, and the most expensive ones. We chose channels people engage with by choice: a conversation, a place to visit and films they want to watch. Each of them led to the same place, Samolet's new app, which gathers more than 20 products and services around one person.
The first act was an AI chatbot, Samolet. About You, built on the research and launched on the major social platforms as the campaign's performance channel. It promised one thing on the first screen: help with life in six areas, from health and home to finances, relationships, career and mental health. Then it simply asked how the person was feeling. When someone answered "Not great, I feel like I'm worse than others", the bot asked what made them feel that way and came back with something useful, such as seven simple techniques to support yourself in moments of self-doubt, with a step-by-step guide and a checklist.
Behind the conversation was a content system built from templates: articles and guides on living with a pet in a flat, moving house without losing your belongings or your sanity, or starting out in music; monthly trackers like 21 new places to visit in the city; explainers and infographics; short videos from the series; notification posts; and episodes of the podcast. It produced more than 10,000 pieces of content a month.
The same templates fed social posts, so the bot's advice also reached people in their feeds. Samolet products appeared only when they were relevant to the person, so promotion felt like advice.
Daily interactions
Engagement rate
Customer acquisition
Then the campaign moved offline. The Life Center by Samolet was a pop-up space built from scratch for the campaign: a reception under the Live a Better Life sign, lounges, quiet corners and a café, all in the campaign blue.
The center hosted free events on health, relationships, finances and careers. Visitors could test different sides of their life, get recommendations from specialists and sign up early for the app.
Early sign-ups for the app
The main act, and the campaign's broad-reach channel, was a product in its own right: a documentary series people would choose to watch. Samolet produced five short films and gave each one to a different film director with full creative freedom on set, so every episode carries its author's own vision and visual language.
Open City, directed by Sergey Pavlov, on the role of the city in our lives: an evening walk through Moscow, with an astronaut in an orange suit.
Corridor of Distractions, directed by Ola Pankova, on staying sane among endless distractions: a pink bedroom, a corridor of blue busts and a 3D avatar floating in space.
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, directed by Milaslava Vybornykh, on work, ambition and growing up: candid interviews cut with full-screen infographics.
Food, Let's Be Friends, directed by Nikita Karikh, on why we eat the way we do: from a family dinner in a small kitchen to a white infinite stage.
In Relationships, directed by Georgy Kazakov-Pokrovsky, on choosing yourself over imposed scenarios: black-and-white collage animation linking people together.
All five films open with the same titles, and two of them carry their own graphic language: full-screen infographics in Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow and spinning rings of type in Food, Let's Be Friends.
The heroes are real people telling their own stories, among them Ksenia Dukalis, Mila Ershova, Evgeny Vikentyev, Vladimir Averyanov and Emir Kashokov. Samolet presents the series and closes every episode the same way: a card that invites viewers to rate their quality of life and get early access to the Samolet app with a QR code.
The films were made by their authors for viewers, so TV channels, Kinopoisk, Russia's equivalent of IMDb, and cinemas took them on, with premieres in 20 countries. Broadcast time cost six times less than buying the same airtime as ad slots.
Episode views
Viewers' positive view of the brand (913 interviews)
The promotion followed the rules of film distribution. The teaser stage reached 4 million people with a series website, a podcast with comedians, contests and news from the set.
Vertical teasers from the set ran on social media, and the podcast The Essence of Things brought comedians and guests together to talk about quality of life.
The premiere reached 5 million people. Samolet held a special screening at the Khudozhestvenny cinema in Moscow, with a public talk and 50 influencers in the audience. Each invitation featured one of the heroes.
At the cinema the campaign met guests at every step: a press wall, an AI phone booth that told you what AI predicts for you, and a screen in the hall inviting everyone to rate their quality of life.
The release reached 31 million people with the episodes on Kinopoisk, VK and the series website, a playlist and 40 outdoor placements in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Lifestyle influencers wrote about Samolet for the first time
Publications in media categories new to the brand
Searches for "Live a Better Life watch"
The series website worked as a guide to a better life. It collected articles on health, relationships, finances and personal growth, quizzes that helped people look at their own habits and happiness, and the podcast, where experts talked about quality of life.
Total reach
Quality of life index
New contacts for the app launch
