Description

AUCHAN is one of the largest retail chains in Russia, operating 231 stores in three formats, plus the online store auchan.ru. It offers a wide range of products, from groceries and household goods to electronics, clothing, and home & garden items. Despite its broad target audience, AUCHAN faced a strategic challenge: attracting a younger audience amid demographic decline and a shrinking core customer base.

The «Back to School» season is a key commercial period for retailers — demand for «school» categories peaks, creating an opportunity to strengthen positions among younger consumers. However, for AUCHAN this period posed significant challenges due to strategic barriers directly affecting business results:

- Insufficient brand value for teenagers. The brand has low recognition among teens: 90% cannot clearly articulate what makes AUCHAN better than competitors*. Top of Mind and spontaneous awareness, as well as consideration levels, are weak. AUCHAN isn’t associated with emotional value or a broad school supply range — both critical factors for kids*.

- Declining offline traffic. The convenience of marketplaces — especially their assortment and pricing in school supplies** — continues to pull customers away.

- Low media investment and Share of Voice. AUCHAN’s spending was below market average, with Share of Voice lagging behind marketplaces and other retailers***. This reduced its ability to compete for audience attention in a dense, uniform BTS communication clutter.

These barriers required a comprehensive strategic approach — one built on a deep understanding of audience behaviors and motivations, and paired with an innovative way to build emotional connections with teenagers.

To achieve this, we couldn’t rely on assumptions or generic seasonal messaging. We needed clear, evidence-based insights into what truly drives decisions during the BTS period.

Before developing creative concepts and promo mechanics, we conducted in-depth interviews to go beyond surface-level observations and reveal insights of both children and parents: how they decide, what excites or frustrates them, and which barriers shape their choice of where to shop. This research was critical to uncovering the core strategic insight behind the campaign.
The research revealed that it is children who initiate product choices and influence where purchases are made**. We made a strategic prioritization to cater to kids first and to their parents second:

- Primary audience — schoolchildren aged 12–17, who enjoy the BTS season but feel it steals the last carefree days of their summer break. They dream of making shopping vivid, emotional, and social — ideally gamified and shared with friends.

- Secondary audience — parents, who seek convenience: buying all necessary items in one place while saving time and money.

Thus, the key strategic insight was that BTS shopping can be both functional and emotional: kids crave fun, engaging experiences, while parents prioritize convenience and value.

The strategy was built upon behavioral insights of the target audience and a unique engagement approach: we merged the needs of both audiences by making BTS shopping exciting for kids yet convenient for parents.

- Strategic brand value building among schoolchildren via relevant channels and mechanics. Roblox — a platform used by 54% of children in Russia**** — became the heart of the campaign. We created a fully branded Back-to-School marketplace, where kids could explore AUCHAN’s private-label school products in a branded gamified environment with friends.

- A promo mechanic designed around teenagers’ insights and interests. Instead of standard cashback or physical prizes, participants could win Robux (Roblox currency highly sought-after in Russia) and «Ashbacks» — AUCHAN’s own branded Roblox currency, offering a more fun and emotionally relevant alternative to typical cashback.

- A one-of-a-kind ambassador aligned with the audience. A Roblox influencer with 10M+ followers engaged kids on three levels: as a virtual Roblox character, a performer at an offline store concert, and a Likee streamer.

- Promo materials balancing the needs of both audiences. Relevant social media platforms (VK, Telegram) and in-store POSM communicated campaign benefits to children while highlighting convenience and savings for parents.

The campaign proved that a strategy rooted in deep audience understanding and relevant insights can effectively address business challenges — from boosting sales and brand awareness to increasing foot traffic and strengthening customer loyalty.

AUCHAN went beyond traditional retail communication, entering teenagers’ digital world and creating true brand value while still meeting parents’ needs.

Business Results
+53% increase in the share of school supplies in the receipt compared to the same period last year (KPI exceeded by 28 percentage points);
+106% growth in the average ticket size for the category vs. same period last year (KPI exceeded by 56 percentage points);
+15.7% increase in offline store traffic during the campaign compared to the pre-campaign period (KPI exceeded by 5.7 percentage points);
668,437 promocodes issued as part of the receipt-based promo (KPI exceeded by 33.7%).

Marketing Results
ROI of 1046% (KPI exceeded by 946 percentage points);
+4 pp increase in first brand recall among the 12–17 audience (KPI exceeded by 2 percentage points);
+4 pp increase in spontaneous brand awareness among 12–17 audience (KPI exceeded by 1 percentage point);
+3 pp increase in «Most likely to use» metric among 12–17 audience (KPI met);
+2 pp increase in «Easy to explain why it’s better than others» metric (KPI met);
+7 pp increase in spontaneous AUCHAN ad awareness among 12–17 audience (KPI exceeded by 2 pp; up from zero baseline);
+5 pp increase in prompted AUCHAN ad awareness among 12–17 audience (KPI met).

Technical / Media Results
Campaign reach of 21,500,000 users (KPI exceeded by 22.8%);
+20% growth in followers under 25 years old (KPI exceeded by 5 percentage points);
Engagement rate (ER) of 8.62% on social media during the campaign (KPI exceeded by 2.62 percentage points);
Growth of active AUCHAN Roblox users by 3.2 million, reaching a total of 5.2 million monthly active users (MAU) (KPI exceeded by 320%)*****.

*Mediascope, BrandPulse, 2024
**Qualitative Interviews, ASHANN, 2024
***Digital Budget, 2024
**** IOM-Anketolog, 2024
***** AUCHAN internal data, 2024; digital and contractor agency data, 2024; Mediascope, BrandPulse, 2024

Credits

AUCHAN
Head of Digital Communications Group: Alena Isaeva
Marketing Director: Galina Yashchuk
Digital Communications Manager: Elena Rytikova
Social Media Manager: Alexandra Bogatova

Realweb
Account Manager: Sabina Gasymova
Head of Communication Strategy Group: Olga Nikuradze
Creative Director: Yuri Puchkov
PR and Brand Development Manager: Gleb Raytses

DVOR Agency
Founder & CEO of DVOR: Dmitry Voronov

Starlink
Head of Client Relations in Creative: Arina Prokopovich