Advertised product: The city of Vyborg
Name: Vyborg identity
Agency: SETTERS
Idea
Vyborg is a beautiful small city in Northwestern Russia. Its unique history begins in Medieval Sweden and continues through Finland and the USSR. Vyborg’s heritage represents different historical periods and great cultures, including the Alvar Aalto Library, Vyborg Castle, Monrepos Park and many other architectural landmarks. There is one problem though – the city's beauty is fading right before our eyes. As a result of the negligence of local authorities, historical buildings and entire streets have fallen into disrepair. Some of them have technically been under reconstruction for decades, but nothing is really being done. To draw the attention of the authorities and local people to this issue, we created a social project around Vyborg's identity as a tourist destination. When developing the design concept we were inspired by the metaphor of ‘fading beauty', as well as Vyborg's historical heritage – its architecture, its forms and its surfaces. The copywriting is based on a play on words: «Выборг» (Vyborg) and «выбор» (choice). The slogans encourage local people to take responsibility for their hometown's fate («Это твой Выборг» – «It’s your Choice») and to act («Сделай свой Выборг» – «Make your Choice»). We created https://vyborg.me, a website showcasing Vyborg's identity, and made a video explainer for the project concept that was later uploaded to YouTube and social media. We also launched a website, https://tvoy.vyborg.me, where users can order a branded souvenir to suit their tastes, choosing from a range of designs we developed. This helped us convey the concept to local residents. We gave them a chance to see their hometown from a new perspective and the hope of a better future for Vyborg, which has always been our main goal. The project enjoyed strong media support and received positive feedback from hundreds of locals in the initial days after the launch. The total audience exceeded 1 million users.
Credits
Sites: https://vyborg.me/ https://tvoy.vyborg.me/
The project team:
Creative director, copywriter: Vitya Vit
Art director, designer: Dmitry Buenkov
Designer: Anna Timofeeva
Web designer: Roman Fil
Web developer: Vladimir Matsuev
Project manager: Dmitry Prokopenko
Copywriter: Gleb Timofeev
Motion designer, operator: Denis Gimaev
Operators: Vitaly Avanesov, Valeria Bubenova
Producer assistant: Nikolai Korotkov
Project manager: Ruslan Pavlishin
Consultant on cultural issues: Vladimir Lomaev
