How to promote complex projects

I often get asked about promoting different projects. And now is the perfect time and place, I believe, to talk about the most challenging ones.

But also the most beloved ones.

I am so glad that I started this professional account to share my thoughts!

For many years, I have been making various social, environmental, and cultural projects popular. And I have developed a recipe for success in PR for such products that people say, "It's too niche of an audience."

They are challenging because people tend to shy away from such topics, but they are beloved because they are truly important and make the world a better place!

From the start of my career, I seemed to attract very challenging projects that were difficult to monetize but had sponsors supporting them. I had to tap into my creativity to attract people to these projects, and I succeeded. The first eco-festival I promoted (without any funding) attracted 25 media outlets and 2,000 guests. Within a year, it grew to attract 10,000 guests. By the end of 2019, I was cutting many ribbons in the most popular places in Minsk, and everyone wanted to be a part of it. You might say that attracting a crowd in Minsk is theoretically possible, but what about in the regions?

Throughout the year, I worked as a PR manager for the UNDP BELMED project, "Your Health in Your Hands." Its purpose was to identify the most disadvantaged regions in terms of alcohol and drug consumption within the country. The goal was to conduct campaigns in these areas to encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. It may sound funny, right?

At first, this goal seemed unattainable, but within six months, through social media and offline activities in these locations, I managed to engage over 1,000 individuals who shared their stories of how they were changing their lives.

During the pandemic, I took on a project related to contemporary art, and despite all the challenges, I managed to bring together over 70 artists and 50 creative collectives in one venue. We were able to attract several thousand guests every Friday and Saturday.

As a result, I accumulated the following case studies:

1. How to make an environmental initiative appealing to people, so they don't shy away from it as if it were punishment or criticism, but eagerly anticipate it, saying, "When will it happen?"
2. How to attract 2,000 people to a young artist's exhibition.
3. How to sell a thousand expensive tickets for a contemporary art festival.
4. How to make the entire country, especially regional cities with high alcoholism rates and low well-being, dance to your tune and embrace a healthy lifestyle, and even send photos of themselves doing it, despite their tired appearance and the challenges they face.
5. How to attract popular brands, officials, media, bloggers, and a total of 5,000 beautiful people to a festival about women's, men's, and children's rights.
6. How to raise 15,000 BYN in just two days for a charitable cause.
7. How to sell hundreds of paper airplanes at a high price and donate all the money to a hospice, ensuring they have enough funds to purchase new equipment.

I had to tackle all these tasks in my own projects. Later, when I became a mentor at a social entrepreneurship school, incredible, challenging, and socially beneficial ideas came pouring in, and each one required a strategy to shoot them up like a rocket.

Despite the different themes, locations, and challenging or favorable times, I used the same recipe in my work.

Here's the recipe I'd like to share:

1. Simplicity

The success of complex projects lies in their ability to be explained simply. I firmly believe that the "above-average income" audience (which, as we know, is quite broad and sought after by many brands) tends to gravitate towards portraying themselves as cultured individuals and connoisseurs.

• Understanding art and being able to engage in conversations about it
• Familiarity with international cinema, theaters, and literature
• Knowledge of etiquette
• Understanding fine beverages and drinking culture

You can continue the list yourself. While beverages and etiquette might be relatively straightforward, asking someone to dedicate an evening to an Art Museum, Tarkovsky, or Hitchcock is often seen as an insurmountable ordeal.

It's not because people are ignorant, but because they often lack the background knowledge and historical context. They fail to grasp the grandeur and significance of these subjects, perceiving them as pretentious and boring. They don't resonate with them because they can't see themselves in those contexts or relate to them.

This is why it's challenging for cultural endeavors to capture the attention of a broad audience.

To make something interesting, it must first be understandable. From there, the tactics unfold: using simple language, familiar expressions, and allegories to what they already know. For example, everyone knows Harry Potter or has seen "The Matrix." In one of my recent projects, where I provided accessible reviews of theatrical performances, I often compared the plot to popular films or books that everyone had read. You need to understand that if your project is something new to someone, they won't know about it, and it will be difficult and intimidating. Your task is to make sure they ABSOLUTELY understand what it's about. Don't be afraid to be lighthearted or superficial—our society suffers from stuffiness that drives people away.

Any project can be deemed successful if what you've created can be explained in two words to a 5-year-old child and a 90-year-old grandmother.

If you're worried that your phrasing might appear superficial, you can always enrich your content with deeper and explanatory thoughts. In that case, each person will latch onto their own level of understanding.

2. Relaxation and Entertainment

I've always been saddened by empty galleries during prestigious exhibitions and empty theaters during screenings of award-winning films. The problem lies in their inability to promote themselves and create an atmosphere where people would want to go on a Friday evening. Whether you like it or not, this is the most massive and financially capable audience for you. Transforming an exhibition or a film screening into a social event is not as difficult as it seems. Just create an atmosphere that people would want to come back to, rather than burdening their minds after a hard workweek.

Let them sit on those steps with a glass of sparkling wine, provide them with emotions, give them postcards, draw tattoos, play music. Let them relax! Combining knowledge with playfulness and relaxation is the best approach to promoting a project.

3. Interactivity

The best way to understand art is to create it yourself. Workshops, interactions with artists, studios, and open rehearsals are beloved by a wide audience because they lack these experiences in their daily lives.

Many people dreamed of becoming artists, ballet dancers, or pianists in their childhood but ended up as notaries, accountants, managers, or administrators.

However, human nature is creative. When you're past 30 and finally have the means to buy your own instrument or paints, you eagerly dive into a hobby you couldn't afford as a child. Passion overcomes all obstacles and even keeps you awake during the screening of "Strawberry Fields."

Non-creative and creative individuals are complementary; they are drawn to and complement each other. The former experiences a sense of breaking free from routine and finding freedom they didn't have, while the latter, thanks to the former, feels grounded and can find relevance. It's necessary to reconcile these two worlds, but for effective communication, a common language and a sense of belonging must be found between them.

3. Ego Stroking

People not only want to learn and fulfill themselves, but they also want to showcase to others that they are doing so. People enjoy dressing up, taking photos; they love feeling important. They all want to be seen as kind and influential, but they don't know how. Give them that opportunity and show them how!

Knowing that it will be covered in the media, people are even willing to participate in auctions and charitable events. Give them visibility, and they will want to come to you.

This is where influencers come into play—those individuals whom people aspire to meet at events. Perhaps it will be possible to introduce them?

Once at an event, we were prohibited from taking photos and videos, and everyone had to surrender their phones at the entrance. This event received the highest number of negative reviews from my experience.

4. Honesty

This applies to all PR projects. Of course, you can sprinkle glitter on your posters and tell incredible tales of what awaits people. However, know that these tales must become reality; otherwise, you will lose the opportunity to ever do it again in this universe. It will lead to unfounded expectations, resulting in a flood of negative feedback and potentially aggressive media reviews of your work. No one will remember that you were doing a noble deed and wanted to save the world with the team. People need to see what you promised them and the points I mentioned earlier: simplicity, relaxation, entertainment, and ego stroking.

Of course, when creating a strategy and any activities, it is crucial to thoroughly study your audience and understand what is acceptable, interesting, and important to them. Then build hypotheses and test them in practice. Something may not work out, but you should always have a backup idea to compensate for the unsuccessful experiment.

I would also like to note that social, environmental, and charitable projects are very sensitive topics that are likely to challenge someone's personal interests. Before starting to work with them, you need to sit down and assess your strengths by answering the following questions:

• Are you prepared for criticism and excessive emotional comments, and how will you handle them?
• Are you and your company genuinely committed to fully implementing this project in the chosen aspect?
• What impact will this project have on society, and if the effect is insignificant, will you be accused of manipulating people's emotions?

You may find my opinion somewhat cynical, but how can we navigate marketing without some cynicism? I sincerely wish you success, and I look forward to your comments.