The first event in the education series Gazprom-Media #GPMTrendy (Gazprom-Media Trends) took place in Moscow’s film center Oktyabr on March 30. The discussion was dedicated to the creation and promotion of series content on TV-3 channel (part of Gazprom-Media) with more than 170 people taking part - clients and partners of the holding, representatives of advertising agencies and mass media, as well as employees. The project #GPMTrendy is timed to the 20th anniversary of the company and there are several similar meetings scheduled for the jubilee year.

The general manager of TV-3 Valery Fyodorovich as well as the channel’s general producer Evgeny Nikishov and marketing director Lily Sheroziya talked about the evolution of media content production and the key to the success for a TV series. They also showed how to organize the promotion of media content in various environments based on the example of the channel’s own projects.

Representatives of Gazprom-Media Sales House, deputy general manager of sales Alina Efimova and head of the cross-media projects department Vera Gorodkova, opened the event.

Vera Gorodkova presented the instrument Kantata to the event participants. Kantata allows clients to plan and implement cross-media campaigns using the resources of Gazprom-Media Holding.

“The media industry has changed. We no longer plan advertising campaigns based on channels. We want communication of the brand to follow the customers as they switch from one device to another, accompanying the user. And here we are the leaders in terms of the volume of media resources, flexibility and reaction speed. Thanks to Kantata, we are working side-by-side with the creators of content and successfully applying this experience to service our customers,” said Vera Gorodkova.

Lily Sheroziya talked about the new technologies that appeared in the media and how they are used in the film and TV series industry: artificial intelligence and robots, 3D printing, drones, virtual reality and blockchain.

“Our new audience is millennials. They have their own language, their format and their heroes. But what unites all of us are stories. And these stories are created specifically by television,” said Lily Sheroziya.

Valery Fyodorovich and Evgeny Nikishov talked about the production of series on TV-3 channel in their joint presentation.

“It is impossible to produce a series based on the audience or the format of the channel. First of all, we need an interesting story. Stories allow us to live several lives. Talented stories can survive in any environment and work for any audience. They will always be in demand - even after 20 years. But no matter how talented the story is, you need to tell others that it exists. Our Kantata helps us to do this,” said Valery Fedorovich.

Valery Fyodorovich and Evgeny Nikishov presented a unique project by TV-3 as a case study - the mystical series Gogol. It is the first TV series that was released in cinemas. The two channel managers told event guests how the TV channel’s team managed to make the main character of the series into a successful media brand.

“The cost of producing the Gogol series was so high that we would not have been able to cover these expenses with the help of broadcast television. We realized that the highest earnings in our country are not online, but in the cinema, so we decided to do what nobody has done before - to show the series as a film. Nobody believed in this, but in the first weekend Gogol. Nachalo (Gogol. The Beginning) collected 220 million rubles at the box office, and in the first day that it was in theaters, the cost of its digital rights grew 10 times,” said Valery Fyodorovich.

The advertising campaign for the film Gogol. Nachalo started eight weeks before the release of the film in cinemas.

“We monitored the results of the campaign daily and made changes to it. For example, we understood that the TV and online audiences do not overlap, and in the digital environment we put our bets on humour and emotions. We promoted our mystical horror through humorous videos and it worked,” said Evgeny Nikishov.

The event ended with the pre-premiere screening of the second part of the series, Gogol. Viy.

About the program #GPMTrendy

The educational program #GPMTrendy is timed to the 20th anniversary of Gazprom-Media. It is a platform for discussing ideas and trends that determine the development of the media and advertising industries. A series of events of different formats and genres will take place over the year as part of the program: discussions, master classes and creative workshops from leading experts in the media field.