OPTOCULTURAL foodporn
Entrant: MOKO Digital
Country: Ukraine
Section/Contest/Category: E. SMM / E03. Visual strategy
Award: Shortlist
Advertiser/Brand: METRO Ukraine
Year: 2024
Creative Team:
MOKO digital agency: Partners: Hlib Pronenko and Tetiana Mokrenko Strategists: Illya Nikolaev, Mykyta Deulin Creative Director: Olha Livik Art Director: Oleksandra Raskosova Client Service Director: Tetiana Malshakova Creative Copywriters: Julia Slepko, Liza Kulbachko, Anna Lee, Viktoria Kuts Designers: Vlada Yurina, Darya Reheta Project Managers: Kateryna Petrenko, Tetiana Kustova METRO Ukraine team: Marketing Director: Pavlo Kozhukhar Brand Manager of METRO TM: Kateryna Kirnesenko
Creative idea:
METRO Ukraine is a retail chain developing a wholesale culture in the Ukrainian market for 22 years, working with B2B and B2C audiences and offering effective solutions for business and home. OPTOCULTURE is based on rational shopping allowing you to buy more quality goods and pay less for them. However, a rational approach often contradicts consumers' view of high taste. While businesses experiment with unique menus, people at home seek aesthetics in simple dishes. We were challenged to show the benefits of OPTOCULTURE on a social network focused on visual content and convince people that rationality is not only about benefits but also about real foodporn. Market analysis showed that consumers prefer buying products presented as ready-to-eat meals. That's why our primary tool was to craft photo and video content with recipes, food picks, and exquisite presentations. We hired a food stylist to cook, photograph, and film, showcasing METRO products from packaging to finished dishes. Each post featured carefully selected items from food and non-food categories, highlighting the convenience and benefits of shopping at METRO. To enhance OPTOCULTURE's visual impact, we use products as compositional elements, arranging them to highlight the logic of purchasing and cooking. We transform product sets into visual recipes with precise proportions, clean lines, and structure, creating a sense of order, thoughtfulness, and appetizing aesthetics. To emphasize the freshness of products and the expediency of purchasing several weeks in advance, meat, fish, or fruit are presented in large pieces and large quantities in the frame. For example, salmon fillets are enough for freezing, baking, or pickling, and honey mangoes are enough for a sweet snack or flavorful charlotte. The visual story of the dishes is completed by serving elements: glasses, plates, and utensils from METRO's non-food assortment. It is a well-thought-out installation that works for aesthetics, convenience, and taste. The composition's rich color scheme enhances the products' appetizing nature for the B2C audience, and the dark textured backgrounds denote professional content for METRO's B2B customers. We created an emotional experience that we transferred from social media to catalogs, posters, and outdoor advertising. We also create reels with recipes from food bloggers and partner chefs to attract both audiences. In B2C videos, METRO appears as a part of the lifestyle. In contrast, in B2B videos, experienced chefs demonstrate the product and process in a professional kitchen, which increases trust in the quality of the goods. Due to the different product use scenarios, reels work as content and an effective sales tool for various audiences. The updated visual strategy with the skill of our creators, was to the taste of our audience: over the year, we created over 700 photo videos on Instagram and Facebook, reaching 85 million people! The communication received tremendous engagement — over 620 thousand interactions, and our shots on the brand's social media pages became a Pinterest aesthetic with over 16 thousand saves. Rational shopping has gained a new flavor. Is it possible for OPTOCULTURE to excite the taste buds? With METRO Ukraine — definitely! The project ran from January 2024 to January 2025.