More than 400 participants united to share their experience in overcoming communication barriers: how PR Marathon 2024 went

More than 30 representatives of large companies and agencies shared their experience on how to overcome communication barriers and think out of the box at the PR Marathon "Communications without Borders" on October 30 in Kyiv, organized by MMR, an online media about marketing, communications and creativity, and ekonomika+, a business/media holding company.

  More than 400 marathon participants and the PR community gathered at the UNIT.City innovation space. The event was hosted by Daria Kudimova, host of the morning show "Wake Up!" on the TV channel "We are Ukraine+". The marathon began with a panel discussion "Security and Transparency - How to Demarcate Borders?" with the participation of Olena Semykina, Advisor to the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Mariana Reva, Director of the Communication Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Daria Cherkashyna, CEO of Havas PR Ukraine and strategic communications expert, Sabina Ablyayeva, Director of Information Policy and Strategic Communications at Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, Oleksandr "Teren" Budko, veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, public figure, writer, host of the YouTube travel show "Leg Dump or All Inclusive". The discussion was moderated by Tetiana Snopko, head of the Media Council media holding.  

Olena Derevyanko , co-founder and partner of PR-Service Agency, Vice President of the Ukrainian PR-League, Doctor of Economics, Professor, spoke about how to manage reputation without creating threats to business.

Oleksandra Hnatyk, Head of PR at EVA and EVA.UA, spoke about the change in EVA's corporate social responsibility positioning and the impact of the war on it.

Dmytro Samolyuk, Head of Digital, TV channels "We are Ukraine" and "We are Ukraine+", shared his thoughts on why digital users don't care about press releases and how to increase media awareness for three kopecks.

How to help veterans return to civilian life on the example of the Live Toward project, Ksenia Sikorska , FUIB's Marketing Director, told .

Yana Goncharenko, Director of Communications and Sustainable Development at Starlight Media, spoke about the path to diversity and inclusiveness at Starlight Media, and about creating a friendly culture for veterans through entertainment shows.

  The line between socially responsible PR and exploitation of the war in communications was discussed during a panel discussion Kateryna Pryimak, head of the Veteranka movement, public figure, veteran, combat medic, Solomiya Bui, PR director at Superhumans, Oleksandr Pedan, TV presenter, public figure, co-founder of JuniorS and pedan|buro, Kateryna Shpachuk, PR manager of Gulliver, Kateryna Gulenok, Head of PR at Brocard Ukraine, Olena Osypchuk, PR director at SOCAR Energy Ukraine.   

Volodymyr Gaidash , Communications Director, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, spoke about the human focus on big business communications during the war. He shared a life hack on how to get Kryvyi Rih's job boards to the Financial Times.

How Raif is transforming its employer brand was shared by Anastasia Levko, Head of Employer Brand Development at Raiffeisen Bank. 

Natella Ozova, CMO of GoITeens, told how to build PR in the metaverse on the example of four IT marathons for children.

Alina Smyshlyak-Boroda, Director of Reputation Management and CSR at Kormotech, Oksana Malichkovych, co-owner and managing partner of EL.B.I. agency, told why "safe" KPIs of a PR specialist do not reflect the impact on the company.

Yulia Petryk , CEO and co-founder of Calibrated, spoke about her experience of participating and judging at international festivals and conferences, and why industry awards can be considered soft-power.

Oleksandr Shevelev, who is responsible for strategic communications at DTEK, spoke about the Battle for Light case and the challenges the team faced when creating the campaign.

The secrets of the secret kitchen of international contests were shared by experienced and titled contestants at a panel discussion with Kostya Schneider, Chief Creative Director, Publicis Groupe Ukraine and Czech Republic, Saatchi & Saatchi Ukraine, Dmytro Liutyi, Creative Director, Bickerstaff.420, and Kateryna Spivakova, Director of Communications and Government Relations, Kernel. The discussion was moderated by Oleksandra Pohorila, founder and managing partner of the strategic communications agency U Agency.

Olena Umerenko, Head of Social Projects at Nova Poshta, talks about organizing a barrier-free marathon and how to draw attention to a social issue through sports events. 

Effective PR campaigns of Ukrainian brands in the world were discussed during the panel discussion by Olena Plakhova, Director of Reputation and Marketing Management at NOVA Group (Nova Poshta), Vira Shcherbakova, Head of Comms at Ajax Systems, Artur Malinowski, Head of Global PR&Communication "I'm Fine", Anton Yeremenko, Head of PR at Kachorovska, Maria Moroz, Chief Producer of the art project "I'm Fine" at Burning Man 2024. 

The PR Marathon also featured an award ceremony for the winners of the PR case study competition. You can find out the names of the winners here.

The organizers are grateful to the partners of the PR-marathon: the main partner FUIB, the general information partner of the TV channel "We-Ukraine+", the hospitality partner UNIT.City, the coffee partner Foundation Coffee Roasters, the water partner Morshynska, the tasty partner Lantmännen AXA, the sweet partners Kyivkhlib and Tarta, as well as AB InBev Efes Ukraine and Jack Daniel's.

As well as media partners: Megapolis, ADV Expert, BFC Gulliver, Infovision, BC Media, TV channels "We are Ukraine", STB, ICTV, Espresso, Apostrophe, online resources UNN, Ministry of Finance, Kommersant Ukraine, LIGA:ZAKON, HiTech Expert, Burda Media Ukraine, Glavkom, Business Capital, UA. NEWS, TrueUA, Marketer.ua, Founder, Economist, Xsport, 44.ua, Postfactum, Pershyi biznesovyi, Osvita Dyvosvit platform, CASES, SPEKA, The Page, and the Association of Creative Industries of Ukraine.