TOO Yandex Qazaqstan
Yandex in-house creative, pr, video and production team
Bayev Group — general production partner
Design Dossier — production partner
Lincoln Company — communication partner
Challenge
Yandex has been present in the Kazakh market for 15 years. During this time, the company has launched over a dozen services to help people with what they need. But our products weren't all released at once, and knowledge of different services can vary widely. If you ask Kazakhstanis what Yandex is, you might hear completely different answers, but in most cases, they'll say it's a taxi service. Users are also much more loyal to domestic companies and often suspicious about foreign businesses.
In 2023 and 2024, many updates and launches specifically for the Kazakh market were carried out, a large office was opened, and new services were introduced. These were unified under the new brand — Yandex Qazaqstan.
Tasks
— Create a platform for unified communication under the new Yandex Qazaqstan brand
— Increase brand awareness for Yandex Qazaqstan and establish it in the user’s mind as a tech company that uses services and technology to tackle any problem
Solution
On June 27, the Yandex Qazaqstan Day open-air summer technology festival took place at the Medeu alpine skating rink in Almaty, where the new brand was presented and our teams took turns introducing the company and its products to the audience.
For the first time ever, Yandex brought all of its services and technology together in one place and clearly showcased the innovations specifically created for the Kazakh market.
From the very start, the festival had to manage a unique paradox: showcasing the company's updated brand meant shifting focus from itself to local users. This gave rise to a creative segmentation of the event program into four sections: language, city, business, and culture.
Each segment was opened not just by an expert, but by an ambassador for whom the related theme held personal significance. The invited speakers challenged the company to respond to them by offering its own solutions.
For example, the language segment was introduced by rapper Zaq, for whom writing trendy tracks in Kazakh means pushing the entire culture forward. It is important to him that the language evolves and remains modern. In response, Saltanat Bolatbekova from Yandex Search demonstrated how technology can help in this endeavor. Her team is making more information (primarily educational material) available in Kazakh. She also presented Neuro in Kazakh on stage — a new way to search and receive information in a single answer — and the first bilingual speaker with Alice, which understands mixed queries in Russian and Kazakh.
The other three sections followed the same format. Urbanist Asel Yerzhanova spoke about safe and comfortable cities, providing a segue for Yandex managers and engineers to present our new urban services. The business section was opened by entrepreneur and blogger Asel Mashanova, followed by Yandex partners. In the culture segment, director and photographer Kanat Beisekeyev used himself as an example of how young creators can make big things happen with the right support. In response, the leaders of Yandex's entertainment services discussed their contribution to the industry and new content offerings.
Despite the fact that Yandex Qazaqstan Day is essentially a festival for a single brand, it focused on the user rather than the business. Visitors explored 19 interactive zones where complex tech was made easier to understand and use. The demo zones included unique scenarios to help guests learn about our products. For example, they gave commands to a smart yurt in Russian and Kazakh using our speaker, completed a quest using Yandex Search, learned safe scooter skills in a mini-city, got an inside look at our delivery robots, and took lidar selfies using the same technology that allows robots to navigate the urban environment.
Results
Why do we consider our event a success?
The event received more than 700 mentions on social networks from festival participants and guests. Guests highlighted the scale and atmosphere, the choice of location, and the interactivity. 95% of the mentions had a positive tone — the festival, brand, and content were well-received by the audience.
The total reach of the festival was 9.2 million people, meaning we managed to engage an audience equal to two-thirds of Kaznet.
Major bloggers (for example, Damelya Sweet, Bolat Srymov, Nagimusha, Ulan Usenov, Vika Buza, Maxim Yakimenko, Akbota Nurakhyn, Baygazy Temirbekov, Arnat Utepbergenov, Aziza Aibadullina, Temirkhan Asylbek, Janel Bektemissova, Nikolai Fetisov, Rashit Ilyasov, and others) covered the festival, and publications appeared in all key media outlets and influential Telegram channels in the country (for example, Forbes, Atameken Business, Kursiv, Finance.kz, Davai Skhodim, Village, Steppe, 98 Mag, We Project, Orda, Nur, Zakon, Stan.kz, Tengri, Informburo, Digital Business, as well as broadcasts on the three largest TV channels: 24 Khabar, Qazaqstan, and Channel 1).
Two weeks after the festival, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan invited his colleague from Uzbekistan to a tour of the new Yandex Qazaqstan office.
The impact of the festival continues to resonate several months later. Social media activity shows that users are more willing to engage in communication and are now acting as brand ambassadors themselves.