Irina Kurochkina, CEO of marketing agency Digital Choo: «Desire to change the ordinary by being unconventional»
Irina Kurochkina, marketing agency DC, in an exclusive interview with “Gamblers Post” talks about the company, Parimatch rebranding, and DC’s plans for the future.
First of all, please, tell our readers a little bit about Digital Choo.
Digital Choo (DC) is an international marketing agency, whose expertise is primarily in the field of iGaming especially in the CIS region, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Expertise in gaming of every employee ranges from 5 to 10 years. As an agency, we formed an independent unit 2 years ago to address this demand and their related implementation of services. The core team was prepared enough to monetize and reinvest it in the development of the company.
We provide a wide range of services and have a legacy experience with gaming in general, this includes betting, poker, binary options, casinos, eSports, and other subcategories. At the same time, we have a lot of demand from the FMCG sector’s giants, retail, E-commerce, as well as other rapidly growing categories that are not interested in a standard format but unique innovative solutions.
In terms of internal Clients — our People, DC is the product of our own effort. It’s a huge platform for everyone that wants to turn their ideas into reality.
More than 200 talented people from all over the world are united by the desire to change ordinary things by being unconventional.
Tell us about the new video for the online bookmaker’s office Parimatch. It has turned out to be very exciting and energetic. How did your company develop this unique idea?
Constant evolution is in the DNA of the Parimatch brand. Step by step brand development attained through an evolutionary process: from a typical SCR brand in its position to become the most progressive and dynamic Online bookmaker. Every instance of Brand growth was ambitious on a scale. Our most recent work provided the most ambitious challenge for Digital Choo. We had to find a new spirit of true Parimatch customers and develop new communication language with them in order to grow the brand from an Online bookmaker to a lifestyle platform for the courageous. Utilizing research and possessing a deep understanding of Parimatch’s typical customers. We have known that in order to create a new concept that is relevant for them it is imperative that their perception of themselves be; bold, adaptive and bright as they are.
The information field is saturated, the audience has become more “muscular”, it is more demanding on the visual presentation of brands.
You need to instill and introduce strong core beliefs into it, and then, like a great design using bead after bead string up different WOW chips; enriched with non-standard shooting techniques, visual trends, and high-quality sound. This is how the concept of “Fired up to win” was born. In the visual aesthetics of this project, we have laid the foundation of an image, a bright, powerful impulse of “charging” discharges of neon light. The essence of the new “Fired up to win” platform is for people who do not tolerate halftones and always want to go further and get more, every day and in every way.
The new Parimatch style became more ‘dynamic’, ‘boldness’ and ‘motion’. So, we did it! We created a sport and lifestyle brand, not a brand that is just loosely connected with betting and sport.
What was Connor McGregor’s role? Does his twin play in the promo video?
Сonnor McGregor is an international MMA superstar and is Parimatch new ambassador for Cyprus and the CIS regions. With his bold, winning, mentality, Connor represents everything that the new-look Parimatch wants to promote. Signing Connor ensured that the new branding lived up to its image, creating a new era for Parimatch as it continues to expand internationally, and truly demonstrates that, for Parimatch and its customers winning is their lifestyle.
As part of the launch of the global campaign, a fresh advertising spot has already been published, where the role of Connor MacGregor was played by a blogger and a workout worker from Kazakhstan, Islam Badurgov. Athletes met in the fall of 2018 at the UFC tournament in Gdansk, after which Islam became involved in the Connor at SBG hall with his personal trainer.
Islam appears here to be the personification of the core brand consumer, by convey ing the spirit of the main character-handsome, who, regardless of any obstacles, moves to the goal and turns every situation into a plus for himself and thus the teaser of the launch of a large ambitious showcase in which the brand appeared in a new iconic spotlight.
How much time did it take to prepare and shoot it? And how many professionals were involved in this work?
We breathed, lived with this idea for 8 months from its inception to its realization.
For the video production, a team of the best from the best was assembled — director Benjamin Nikolas, cameraman Alexandre Jamin, Canadian sound studio THE CULT NATION, and the actors are all world-famous. We chose only those whose hearts beat in rhythm with ours. More than 80 people took part in its creation, not just a video clip — a powerful group that invigorates you from the instant you’re exposed to it.
Everyone — from producers to make-up artists — drew their energy from the sun at dawn and until late at night for two shooting days until it was broadcast it to people as our common product. We conveyed the drive and rapid pulse to everyone who has seen, heard and feels our work, both at the level of fasting and sound production and deeper than that, in tune with the heart.
What are Digital Choo’s plans for the next couple of years?
The Digital Choo team will continue to be fired up! As a teaser, I want to say that we are already developing another WOW film with one famous Irish actor ;)
In general, we are striving to continually create, enable the team to reveal their hidden creativity, and in every aspect of the services that we provide. Of course, the following years and given our ambitious start, will are devoted to more rapid development. There are a lot of plans: it’s like the widening of the DC holding structure as a whole, its expansion by many digital innovation departments, as well as the introduction of new initiatives by our team, both in the scope of branded content projects and its own media platforms, which will be relevant already through a couple of quarters.
We do not rest on our accomplishments, we are already working on the tomorrow trends of the betting industry and immediately turning them into a general market for customer demand.
