Description

The Challenge: A Market on the Brink of Collapse

Following the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine's economy was devastated. Micro-businesses, the lifeblood of the nation, froze. For OLX, the impact was catastrophic: in key business verticals, activity collapsed by up to 95%

We faced two critical problems:

A Business Problem: Our revenue and number of active sellers were in freefall.

A Perception Problem: entrepreneurs saw OLX as a "second-hand flea market," not a serious platform to launch or restart a business in wartime. This perception was our single biggest barrier to recovery.

The Objectives: From Survival to Revival

Our goal was not just to survive, but to reverse the trend and fuel economic recovery. We set clear, ambitious objectives:

Business Objective: Achieve +15% YoY growth in both Revenue and Daily Active Listers (DAL).

Marketing Objective: Establish OLX as a credible business tool by increasing unique visitors to our business hub by +50%.

Communications Objective: Achieve mass awareness of our new positioning with a media reach of 88% (1+).

The Strategy: From Flea Market to Economic Engine

To solve our perception problem and drive business results, we needed to fundamentally shift our role in the market.

The Insight: In a time of crisis, aspiring entrepreneurs don't need get-rich-quick promises. They need a simple, reliable, all-in-one tool that removes barriers like paperwork and upfront costs.

The Strategic Shift: We repositioned OLX from a simple C2C marketplace to an essential B2C "turnkey solution" for starting a business.

The Big Idea: We launched a new brand platform, "OLX. Where Business Begins," designed to empower any Ukrainian to turn their talent into income.

The Execution: Creativity Engineered for Maximum Impact

Our execution was designed not just to be creative, but to be ruthlessly effective in achieving our objectives.

Relatable heroes to lower barriers: Instead of abstract success stories, we featured three relatable makers (a dressmaker, a carpenter, a jam-maker). This human-centric approach made the intimidating prospect of starting a business feel achievable, directly encouraging new users to try.

Cinematic Craft to Build Trust: The high-quality, cinematic execution was a strategic tool to fight the "flea market" perception. It visually positioned OLX as a professional, trustworthy platform, making our B2B proposition credible.

Interlinked stories to prove the concept: The campaign's masterstroke was subtly interlinking the heroes — showing them buying from each other. This wasn't just a clever creative device; it was a powerful visual demonstration of the economic ecosystem OLX creates. It proved our strategic point in a way no slogan ever could.

A Full-Funnel Approach: TV and Radio delivered mass reach to build awareness, while a new "OLX Business Hub" served as a powerful conversion tool, providing tutorials and support to turn interested viewers into active sellers.

The Results: shattering every objective

The "Where Business Begins" platform didn't just meet our goals, it rebooted commerce in a war-shocked market and delivered spectacular results.

Business objective: SMASHED

Revenue grew by +54% vs. a +15% goal (Exceeding the target by 260%).
Daily Active Listers grew by +26% vs. a +15% goal.

Marketing Objective: OBLITERATED

Unique visitors to the Business Hub surged by +258% vs. a +50% goal (Exceeding the target by over 400%).

Communication & Efficiency: ACHIEVED & EXCEEDED

Cross-media reach hit 89%, achieving our awareness goal.

Digital ad recall was +74% higher than the benchmark, proving the creative was highly effective and memorable.

Media was highly efficient, with CPM -13% below plan.

Conclusion:
In the toughest of times, our strategy turned hope into hard cash for over 100,000 entrepreneurs. We proved that creativity, when laser-focused on solving a core business problem, can deliver a massive, measurable business impact on a national scale.

Sources: OLX internal data, SimilarWeb, OLX BI data

Campaign period - 18/09/2023 – 05/11/2023

Credits

OLX Ukraine:
E-com Marketing Director OLX Europe: Andriy Vasyliev
Senior marketing manager: Alyona Horkovenko

TOBEDONE Agency:
Creative director: Mira Chinar
Senior Copywriter: Danylo Tertychnyi
Designer: Slava Kobzenko

Production:
NOSTARS Ukraine