The hardest race

Agency: Gres Todorchuk Partner companies: mlnk.team Velmet Olexander Todorchuk, partner, Gres Todorchuk Yaroslava Gres, partner, Gres Todorchuk Daria Lyubimova, COO, Gres Todorchuk Olexandra Kulinich, Project Manager, Gres Todorchuk Valeria Dorosh, PR Manager, Gres Todorchuk Andriy Sokolov, Creative manager, Gres Todorchuk Olena Plakhova, Reputation Management & Marketing Chief, Nova Poshta Leona Krasnenkova, Head of the Communication Projects Department, Nova Poshta Leonid Ostaltsev, ATO veteran, hero Slava Melnik, Director / Operator, mlnk.team

This is the eighth year of war in Ukraine, and until russia invades in 2022, most citizens got used to that fact This was confirmed by the number of search requests on "war in Ukraine", which in 2021 dropped 5 times compared to the first years of hostilities. Bursts of national attention occur only when the conflict escalates, and the media starts to actively talk about the war.  And yet, this whole time, every day, Ukrainian troops still were risking their lives in eastern Ukraine. These are the people we have no right to forget about and we should not get used to them being in the war zone. These are the people who perform heroic deeds every day for the sake of our peaceful life and who really need our support. Since the beginning of the war in 2014, Nova Posta has taken an active social position: the brand organized the Humanitarian Postal Service of Ukraine, which delivers goods from volunteers in eastern Ukraine for free, launched a rehabilitation program for Ukrainian servicemen and women and set up a checkpoint in the town of Schastia in Luhansk Region. But 2021 year, on the Defenders and Defendresses of Ukraine Day, Nova Poshta wanted to create a project in which not only the brand, but also every Ukrainian can take part. A project that would remind people of the daily exploits of the military, and would provoke a wave of support and gratitude to the defenders and defendresses. Nova Poshta marathons is one of the brand's anchor projects, which gets powerful media coverage every year. It is an event that is possible in Kyiv and other peaceful cities of the country thanks to the daily feats of our military on the front line. At the same time, news about the war in the Eastern Ukraine was being discussed less and less. We decided to focus the attention that marathons generate on those to whom we owe our opportunity to run marathons. To remind the audience that every day our armed forces in the East run their own marathon distances. And they do so with very heavy equipment, which can weigh more than 30 kilograms.  During the half marathon "Nova Poshta. Kiev" the "Hardest race" took place: Leonid Ostaltsev, a veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian war, ran the distance in military equipment weighing over 30 kilograms. “The Hardest Race" attracted the attention of major Ukrainian TV channels and media outlets, reaching 15,000,000+ contacts with zero media budget. But the main thing is that the project provoked a huge nationwide wave of gratitude to the military. During the project 217,000 leaflets were written by Ukrainians in Nova Poshta branches and on the project website. And Nova Poshta delivered them to the front.