The release was timed to coincide with the release of all episodes of ‘Vertinsky’ TV series telling the story of a famous Russian XX century singer Alexander Vertinsky performed by Alexey Filimonov.
Anton composed a modern arrangement for ‘Lilovy N’, written more than a hundred years ago, and recorded a song. The video was directed by Ashot Gevorgyan.
Only in a month, the video received more than 1 000 000 views, 25 000 likes and about 3 000 comments. ‘You can find the song on all streaming services. We’re sure you’d like to do it after watching the music video’.
Campaign description:
KION is a Russian multimedia online platform created by MTS. The platform started its work on April 20, 2021. KION allows you to watch TV channels, TV series and movies on your phone, tablet, computer or Smart TV. One of the main directions of the further development is the unique content including TV Series and documentaries.
‘Vertinsky’ TV Series
The series tells us about the life and career of a popular Russian XX century singer Alexander Vertinsky. Today, it’s one of the largest projects in Russia involving 364 actors with lines, 8 525 background actors and 665 crew members. The shooting took place in 3 countries. The series was directed by Avdotya Smirnova.
The main feature is that it’s the first digitally released project of the First Channel. You can watch the extended version (18+) only on KION, but starting from November 29, 2021 TV series was broadcasted on the First Channel in prime time.
Why Antoha MC?
Anton is a bright musician, and some people even think of him as of a modern unrecognized genius. First of all, he loves art and music. His lyrics depict dear and important moments of everyday life. This approach allows him to create masterpieces impossible to ignore.
We had an idea to give Anton a chance to reinterpret Alexander Vertinsky’s lines and write his own music thus attracting new audience to the series.
Promotion through collaboration with the artist
Both the series and the music video are complex creative products with a huge number of people and processes involved, without which it is impossible to achieve a cool result. Therefore, it sounds reasonable that the impression made by a musical promo video on a viewer will also be complex:
The first effect of such a creative collaboration is associated with the audience loyal to the musician (Antoha MC). Due to the fans’ immense love and respect, the performer’s collaboration with anyone is considered to be a direct call for paying attention to the brand and the series.
The second effect is more related with the world of advertising. The emotions which the viewers get from the music video, their opinion about the shooting quality, the entourage and sound are automatically associated with the series. Viewers anticipate the similar effect from the promoted product.
The third effect is going viral in the media. You give journalists new information, and if it is relevant and interesting to the portal audience, they provide their readers and viewers with this news, thus boosting the reach, impressions and, later, customers.
The news first was released by Medusa, and then other media outlets released their own versions of the news.
“Publications on Meduza”
“Publications on Afisha”
“Publication on RBC”
The fourth effect affects the middle of the funnel and acts as a kind of trigger which helps bring back the ‘sleeping’ viewers. It is when a person started watching the video, but then stopped for some reason. When a clip hits its info box, it is a trigger encouraging to resume watching.The fifth effect is that the song itself gets its fans who start listening to it endlessly. They add the song to their playlists on streaming platforms, listen to it in a car and at home thus attracting new audience.
Another clear benefit of digital content is the eternal promo: the clip and track will only continue to gain views on YouTube and streaming platforms. And Antoha MC will continue to develop as a musician and get new fans who will see the clip, the series and get acquainted with KION.
Antoha MC performing his song on the First Channel
About filming
‘Director's comments’
‘Overall, it was essential to find a balance between the time the artist spends in the video and frames from the series. The screen has become a good visual solution and divided the video into three different visual scenes: episodes from the series, red screen with a reference to MTS, and white screen with handwritten lyrics.
Luckily for us, Anton is one of those artists who is interesting to look at because of his peculiar manner of performing in front of camera. He looked especially authentic in a tailcoat and vans sneakers. What can I say about music? It is a hit from the first notes. A few weeks before the shooting, Yura Danilov had made an ad with a similar screen but a few times bigger, so I knew that his experience in working with such a screen, and a masterly vision of the frame and light, would be ideal for our project. And he has proved it. And I am grateful to our producers who confided in us and gave us freedom to create’.
“Producers solve tasks”
“Solution with the screen”
“Red means MTS”
Lyrics – Alexander Vertinsky
Music – Anton Kuznecov (Antoha MC)
KION:
Project producer - Maria Zhivova
Marketing Director - Sergey Kostrov
Executive Producer - Olga Slobodyanik
Creative Director - Pavel Sitnikov
7MARTA:
Head of special projects - Evgeny Strelnikov
Production:
Producer - Elizaveta Lavrova
Director - Ashot Gevorgyan
DoP - Yura Danilov
Editor/colorist - Ivan Dorogavtsev
1st AC - Yulia Osipova
2nd AC - Kirill Podolyak
Gaffer - Andrey Savelyev
Sound - Andrey Sergeev
Style - Maria Papsueva
Muah - Natalia Buldakova
Administrators - Maxim Sokolov, Dmitry Stifler
Studio - Sunlight studio
LED/multimedia - LUCH - Art and multimedia studio
Rent - Kirillin Camera Rental