Special prize in nomination "Effectiveness.Small projects"

1. Prominent businessmen
League
Nomination: “The
Category: “Small
most effective project”
projects” (budget less than 150 000 grn)
The Author of the project
The customer
PR-department
of “Defense” full service marketing agency
St. Skrypnika, 14A, Kharkiv
+38 (057) 728 41 19
+38 (067) 577 93 70
http://defense.com.ua/
facebook.com/defenseagency
“Strategiya” MBA-center
St. Petrovskogo, 12, Kharkiv
+38 (057) 700-00-09
+38 (050) 301-10-89
http://www.mba-ou.com.ua/

2. Description of situation
After the last five years the number of students of the “Strategiya” MBAcentre (representation of the Open University of Great Britain in Kharkiv
and the only MBA-school in the region) has decreased in 3 times.
After the crisis Kharkiv businessmen unwillingly invest money in the
education of their administrative stuff. And only some of them really
think about a system business education.
The businessmen and top-managers are poorly informed about MBAcentre’s presence in Kharkiv. They receive the information from their
colleagues mostly. 80% of the students come to study on the
recommendation of the MBA-centre’s students and alumni.

3. Description of situation
Goals:
Build the
familiarity of
the “Strategiya”
MBA-centre in
Kharkiv
Update the demand
for businesseducation among
Kharkiv topmanagers
Establish the
communication
among the MBAcentre’s students
and alumni
Demonstrate that the
“Strategiya” MBAcentre gives the
students an extra
business administration
knowledge
Form the feel of pride of
possessing the Kharkiv
MBA-centre alumni
status and the feel of
closeness, belonging to
some community
Tasks:
Ensure the mention of the
MBA-centre in the local
media with the biggest
part of target audience
Receive the socially
significant information for
the constant, not a single
spreading among the
Kharkiv media

4. Limitations and threats
Market limitations
Lack of the corporate
clients stream
No transnational
No opportunities of
corporations’ subsidiaries involvement students
from other regions
Very narrow market
segment: the only
individual customers
Limitations of the information field
Lack of the active business
editions and shortage of the
“alive” social and politics media
90% of mass-media
belongs to an
owner
Toughening of the
auditorial climate
because of the
mentioning of the
company’s name in the
texts
Customer’s limitations
No newsworthy
information
Limited month
budget
Lack of the direct access
to the students and
alumni*
Unwillingness of the
businessmen to give their
companies’ and their own
names
*according to the conditions of education in the “Strategiya” MBA-centre it is forbidden to give the contact information to other people

5. Preparation
The survey of Kharkiv journalists for identifying which businessinformation may be interesting for publishing (>50% Kharkiv region
editions)
The survey (interview format) of twenty Kharkiv top-managers and
medium-sized and big enterprises’ owners (who are not MBA’s students
and alumni) to define the character of economics formation which they
feel the lack of.

6. Solution
Сreation of the expert community for the “Strategiya” MBA-centre’s
alumni and students on-line.
The project was named “Biznes Liga”.
Project key points : On-line quizzes were monthly organized among
the MBA-centre’s students and alumni on different top business themes
such as business administration, micro and macro economics
developments, their influence on the business situation in the region etc.
As a result the journalists has been provided with high-quality economic
content and the entrepreneurs – with the relevant integrated
information about the business activities in the market.
Note. During the realization of the project it was necessary to avoid an association between “Biznes Liga” and lowstatus physical clubs of the entrepreneurs which already exist in Kharkiv.

7. What we did?
The representatives of "Strategiya" MBA-center distributed the
invitations to participate in the project among 450 students and alumni.
We received the agreement of 150 persons.
Each month we organized the quizzes among the people who accepted
the replies. Each quiz consisted of 3-5 questions. Each answer had an
illustrative comment except “yes” and “no” ones.
We received not less than 50 full-filed quizzes, processed them with the
participation of our sociologist and gave the integrated data to the local
mass media.

8. Originality
The agency developed a unique promotion way for MBA-schools.
This way makes possible to stay in an attention field of the target
audience when there is lack of newsworthy information in the company.
None of the MBA schools has
never been promoted this
way.

9. Results
An active participation in the
“Biznes Liga”’s on-line quizzes of
32% of project’s members
(about 50 peaple)
The shortage of the relevant economics
information in the region has decreased.
Not only the state officials but the
businessmen started to «talk».
of
publications
was put in the
target massmedia
of target media
published the texts
on continuing basis
for free
The number of the company’s
contacts has grown up by a
third.
More than 100 non-commercial publications were
issued during 6 months in the local mass-media
(to compare: MBA-schools of other cities with
over a million dwellers had 1-5 non-commercial
publications during the same period)
= 1:2,7
Target audience reach is more than 60 000
contacts

10. Examples of the publications

11. Opinions
Vitaliy Stavropolskiy, VOOMY IT-Park founder
After the launch of the on-line quizzes we’ve started to share our
opinions on different events and phenomena which take place in our
country and the way they influence the local business. The quizzes are
especially important because it is the proper MBA-centre’s project,
which was offered not by the Open University. It takes the
characteristics and other local business features into account. “Biznes
Liga” mobilized us to discus different important to us topics, to be
heard not only by each other but also by other Kharkiv entrepreneurs.
Vitaliy Hudyakov, TH “Diana”
All economics information in the local media is given without taking
into account specific features of Kharkiv region. It leads to
misunderstanding of what is going on our own territory. Participating
in the MBA-centre quizzes without indicating our names and the names
of our companies, Kharkiv entrepreneurs has got a chance to express
their opinion and in return of it to get a piece of processed information
about the market which there is always lack of.

12. Thank you for your attention!
“Defense” agency’s team:
Yana Chumak, Kiril Nagornyi, Anastasiya Manina, Margarita Berger