Iryna Kurochkina, Founder & CEO of Digital Choo (DC), exclusively shares details about the new agency’s campaign and the approach to creativity

To begin with, congratulations on your new video for Parimatch. It’s really awesome. The Joker reference is especially memorable. The portrayal of animals has a never-seen-before touch. Could you share something about the basic concept and behind the scenes creation of the video?

Happy to hear that the high standards set by DC team hit the mark again! It was a  great new challenge for us, and we’re happy to see the result and the reaction to it. 

The main task that was envisioned for this campaign was to showcase even more of Parimatch in a renewed character: bold, bright, and epic to the core! So we approached it from all of the most unexpected angles and created images that represented the most vivid qualities of the brand’s nature. The next step was to showcase it all in an EPIC video. 

We started shooting in Dublin, at the studio where “Vikings” was filmed. We made  episodes on largest scale like Conor’s fights and animal scenes. Then in Kyiv we shot the masked girls and “The Last Supper” scenes. Each stage took a day due to this, there were really massive requirements for the logistics of the whole process, so our experience in this played an important role. The determination of all parties also greatly helped! In fact, everyone on set was so energetic and eager to get it done in the best way possible, that we had no doubt the result would be amazing. Especially when the first person to take it so enthusiastically would be your protagonist. Conor McGregor was the best guy to work with. 

How do you settle on Conor McGregor as the brand ambassador? Specifically , how did you make a video that could draw from his image as a martial arts hero. Or does he fit nicely into the branding concept for Parimatch.

It was an absolute win-win solution – to make a deal with him as brand ambassador. His nature matches perfectly with the brand’s, as well as with its audience’s – bold, stubborn in pursuing his goals, daring, and very, very true despite any circumstances. That’s what the whole DARING TO BE EPIC is about and that’s what Parimatch is about. 

In a previous interview with EG, you said the idea is to “develop new communication language … to grow the brand [Parimatch] from an online bookmaker to a lifestyle platform for the courageous.” The video seems to be in the right direction for that purpose. As the creator of the campaign, how do you see or rate the progress of branding?

It’s going great, just as it always has. We made a statement with rebranding, which showed amazing results focused at just the right target audience. Now we’re scaling up this communication with a DARING TO BE EPIC campaign, and expanding the new positioning to the core. We don’t have any quantitative results just yet, but I expect them to be impressive. 

In the previous interview, you described the creativity behind the branding process beautifully: Like “a great designer using bead after bead to string up different WOW chips”. Let us elaborate on that a bit more in the context of a betting or gaming company. Advertising is not like the crafty making of an attractive ornament, is it? How do you ensure that the craftsmanship in creativity transforms the sales part or brings in more users for the company? 

Quality modern advertising for betting or gaming businesses must be a mix of efficiency and boldness. Today, many can create bright visuals and stuff, even more run purely marketing campaigns. The Big Idea what gets in people’s heads and hearts, that sticks, and brings sufficient results, which as whole are on another level. We maintain this level by making it the norm of – every campaign, communication platform, or even the smallest solutions  that are there by default. The DC team sets higher goals for themselves and takes great pride in achieving them. We love challenges.  

Tell us more about your use of creativity in advertising, especially for betting and gaming companies. Why is it so important? What is needed for this? 

The modern betting/gambling market is oversaturated with look-alike advertising. This is why it is crucial to stand out from the crowd, to be really heard and seen by your audience; this is why it is crucial to create bold and unconventional strokes. To do this, you have to think outside the box, be courageous, to question everything, and have really high standards. Truly stunning creativity can not – and will never – rest on its laurels. It is a never-ending process of finding new angles to look at things, new ways to think.

Could you talk about the potential dangers and warning signs as well on how to judge the impact of creative branding campaign? What one should be afraid of, or what one should not be afraid of? 

Resting on laurels, as I’ve just mentioned, is one of the biggest traps for those who create. One shouldn’t ever think that reaching a certain level or receiving recognition will make them an invincible superman of creativity. As I said, it’s not a result but a process, and it is an evolving process on the way  to development. 

This is the era of targeted advertisement over in social media. How do you blend your theory of creativity into this algorithm-dictated ad targeting?

It is not always possible to reach your audience with traditional targeting tools. For example, when we were working on the rebranding, no existing methods could target the core audience of the brand  – rather it is a small share of active, engaged players that bring in the most revenue. That’s exactly where our creative approach kicked in, because the only way to get their attention was through resonating communication. 

And again – it’s the mix of unconventional creativity and technology that rocks the market nowadays. 

Finally, what’s next on this campaign? Any new videos coming up?

As we continue to communicate Parimatch renewed bold character with both of the brand ambassadors – Conor McGregor and Mike Tyson. I won’t be spoiler or anything, but I promise you that you will not be bored, so stay tuned!