Sincerity and survival in ‘The Overwhelm’
Opinion
In the second of a three-part series, Maria Kochurenko, managing partner at Bickerstaff highlights how sincerity and cultural resonance consistently outperform in times of extreme overwhelm and constraint.
What can UK advertisers learn from a Ukrainian agency working through war? Spoiler: more than you’d expect.
While British brands struggle with consumer scepticism, tighter budgets, and the endless noise of overloaded digital channels, a Ukrainian agency, Bickerstaff.734, has been demonstrating what truly effective advertising looks like under the most extreme circumstances.
Bickerstaff recently shared its story at a Media Futures Market-hosted event at the Dutch embassy in London. It offers profound lessons for UK advertisers trying to cut through today’s overwhelmed media landscape.
Key rule 1: Sincerity matters
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was no playbook. No one knew the right words to restore communication on behalf of brands.
Two months into the war, dairy brand Halychyna approached Bickerstaff. Its brief was brutally honest: “We want to say something to Ukrainians in this difficult time, but we don’t know what.” The agency’s response was equally frank; it didn’t know either.
Instead of formal messaging, it asked: What do we want to hear from Ukrainian brands right now? The answer wasn’t about product benefits or positioning. It was about unity —the force that keeps Ukrainians together.
The solution was ingenious in its simplicity. The brand was renamed 13 times, with milk bottles redesigned to represent all 14 historic regions of Ukraine, including occupied territories like Donbas and Crimea. The strategy was “We instead of me”, literally uniting the country on supermarket shelves.
The campaign generated over 20 million impressions in its first month, with Ukrainians creating poems, memes, and TikToks around bottles of milk. But the most telling metric was gratitude. People thanked them for the campaign.
For UK brands navigating the cost-of-living crisis, the lesson is clear. Consumers can smell opportunism from miles away. Empty “we’re here for you” messaging falls flat. What cuts through isn’t clever positioning or emotional manipulation; it’s a genuine understanding of what people need to hear, expressed with honesty and sincerity.
Key rule 2: Media as message
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Halychyna campaign wasn’t the idea; it was the media strategy. With zero budget and traditional channels feeling inappropriate, the agency made packaging itself the medium. The milk bottle became the billboard.
This wasn’t desperation; it was strategic brilliance. In a landscape where power shortages made digital unreliable, Bickerstaff owned a channel entirely: the point of sale. Every trip to the supermarket became a brand encounter, every fridge a gallery of unity.
UK advertisers should note: Kantar’s Media Reactions research confirms that point-of-sale remains the top channel for driving immediate purchase decisions. Yet many brands default to crowded digital platforms, burning budget for diminishing returns.
The Ukrainian example suggests a rethink. Not every budget stretch needs the latest digital trend. Sometimes the simplest channel – packaging, point-of-sale, owned media – delivers the biggest cut-through.
Key rule 3: Speed is survival
When Ukraine was denied Leopard 2 tanks at a crucial Ramstein meeting, Bickerstaff recognised an immediate opportunity. Working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it conceived, created, and launched #FreeTheLeopards in a single day – asking people worldwide to share photos in leopard print to pressure world leaders.
The campaign reached 111 million people and, remarkably, Ukraine received the tanks within three days. Whether correlation or causation, the speed was undeniably powerful.
In the UK’s fast-paced media environment, this lesson is particularly relevant. Brands often suffer “paralysis by overwhelm”. Endless strategy sessions and approval processes that ensure perfect irrelevance by launch. Sometimes, being first with 80% perfect is better than being flawless but too late.
This doesn’t mean abandoning strategy for stunts. It means building capability for rapid, decisive action when moments demand it. Brands that thrive will be those that can pivot fast enough to join conversations while they’re still happening.
The takeaway
Bickerstaff’s work reveals something profound about effectiveness. In environments of extreme constraint—whether war, recession, or media noise—sincerity and cultural resonance consistently outperform sophisticated targeting and big-budget production.
For UK advertisers facing their own constraints, the lesson is clear: instead of throwing more money at overloaded channels, invest in understanding what people genuinely need to hear. You can find the simplest, most direct way to say it. And when the moment demands action, you can move faster than your competition thinks possible.
Sometimes survival teaches better lessons than success ever could.
Maria Kochurenko is managing partner at Bickerstaff.734
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