Description

Context
February the 14th is when brands drown the world in romantic clichés. Flowers, hearts, and copy-paste offers flood every feed until everything blurs together and no one cares what’s what.

Problem
Quick service restaurants are often regarded as one of the most standardized categories in the industry

Standards include:
* Visual identity: red and yellow only.
* Creative: giant burger shots.
* Emotion: “cheap and cheerful,” nothing else.

It’s especially obvious in SMM — every brand’s feed looks the same, giving people zero reason to follow or engage.

Solution
What can a young local brand with global roots do to stand out? Find an occasion that would let to speak not only for itself, but also on behalf of its audience. And we found it! We responded to a famous blogger’s post about her ex, gaining wide feedback that we then used to create our campaign. That’s how we turned Valentine’s Day into an occasion to talk about exes and ... our brand!




Three keys to success:
1. Open dialogue with the audience — we spoke about a topic brands usually avoid.
2. The courage of self-irony — we showed our brand has a real personality.
3. A new point of SMM contact — we used Tinder, a channel that our competitors overlooked.
Plus: a product promo — ice cream to “sweeten” the bitterness of heartbreak.

Results

1.6M digital reach in just three days.

Brand creative was recognized 17% more often than standard product ads.
The post’s engagement rate hit 12.7% — 9.5× higher than average.

On Tinder, we got almost 100 matches, and 41% of them messaged us first.
Restaurant visits grew by 70%, and sales surged by 108%!
Despite being “off-season” for ice cream, the entire promo stock was sold out.


Result: the campaign proved that SMM is not only about product promos, but it is also a space for honest dialogue. Bold creativity and a new format delivered record engagement and showed that to stand out in digital, you need to be daring.

Media channel:
DOOH: LED screens, media boards, unconventional formats (large-scale placements);
Digital: targeted advertising on Meta and TikTok;
SMM: crowd marketing on Meta (situational commenting on influencer posts), organic promotion on Tinder and Meta;
PR: organic promotion in local media.

Release date:
February 14, 2025

Credits

I’M Restaurants:
Asset Mashanov – Chief Executive Officer
Evgenia Emelianova – Marketing Director
Yelena Kozubskaya – Brand Manager

Agency Team:
Gani Zharkynbayev – Strategic Partner
Karina Ptitsyna — Account manager
Alexander Tyulyaev – Creative Director
Nurym Akimgozhaev – Designer
Nikita Gorshkov – Strategy Manager
Vadim Tarkovsky – Digital Group Head

Partners:
Optimum Media Group – Outdoor Advertising Buying