Smallest Support: thanking Europe via ads

On the eve of Ukraine’s Independence Day, we launched The Smallest Support campaign for the Ukrainian Institute to express gratitude to European countries for their support. Despite political advertising restrictions, we reached 12 countries, exceeding the planned KPIs. Discover how a creative approach and effective digital communication helped deliver an important message to millions.

Smallest Support: thanking Europe via ads

Gratitude to Europe Through a Unique Advertising Campaign

Context

When words of gratitude need to reach millions, media advertising becomes the key to success. This is how The Smallest Support campaign was born—a project designed to show European countries how much Ukrainians appreciate their support. Launched ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day, the campaign covered 12 European countries and became a striking example of effective digital communication despite advertising restrictions.

Client

The Smallest Support campaign was commissioned by the Ukrainian Institute, a state institution responsible for promoting Ukrainian culture worldwide, in collaboration with the creative agency Bickerstaff—the initiative aimed to express gratitude to European citizens for supporting Ukraine during challenging times. The Ukrainian Institute sought to convey that even the smallest act of support matters and that Ukrainians deeply value international solidarity.

Challenge

Many advertising platforms restrict or outright ban political and social issue advertising. This significantly limits the ability to promote campaigns like this through standard digital advertising tools. However, our team found effective solutions that not only allowed us to launch the campaign but also exceeded the planned KPIs.

Strategy & Tools

We targeted socially active Europeans aged 25-60, focusing on Germany, the UK, and Spain. Our message was clear and emotional: a heartfelt thank you to European citizens for supporting Ukraine.

The primary goal was to reach 5 million people through video and banner ads on the most popular digital platforms.

The Smallest Support_4

Key Campaign Tools:

🔹 Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram) – Targeted advertising that ensured high engagement and precise audience interest matching.

🔹 Google Ads (YouTube, Google Display Network) – Video and banner ads designed to reach the most relevant audiences.

🔹 Campaign Landing Page – Users were directed to a specially developed landing page that explained the campaign’s idea and encouraged interaction.

Despite political advertising restrictions, our team successfully adapted the content to meet the requirements of each advertising platform, ensuring the campaign’s effectiveness.

Creative Approach

The Bickerstaff creative team developed a series of videos and banners that carried the core message—gratitude to European citizens for supporting Ukraine. The creatives were optimized for different platforms to maximize effectiveness.

Results

Key Achievements:

✅ Campaign reach exceeded the target by 8%

✅ 102,381 total video views across Meta and Google

✅ 6,791 ad clicks leading to the campaign’s landing page

✅ The highest ad impressions were recorded in Spain, Italy, and the UK

How Did the Audience Engage with the Ads?

When we launched video ads on YouTube, one big question remained: Can we capture viewers’ attention and keep them watching until the end? The answer became apparent within the first few days of the campaign. Over 58,000 views proved that the content was genuinely engaging. People weren’t just seeing the ad—they were watching it to the end, feeling the sincerity and power of the message.

Google Display Ads helped us expand our reach through banner advertising on popular websites, drawing attention and sparking interest. However, due to the campaign’s limited duration, we couldn’t fully maximize this tool’s potential. This served as a valuable lesson: future initiatives should allow more time for reach expansion.

The biggest breakthrough came with meta ads (Facebook, Instagram). We knew that in social media, timing is everything—our content had to appear at just the right moment in users’ feeds. And it worked! The campaign resonated so well that engagement levels exceeded expectations. People liked, commented, clicked links, and shared the posts, each interaction reaffirming the importance of our campaign’s message.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Quality content captures attention – The campaign’s videos were watched over 100,000 times, proving strong audience interest.

2️⃣ Advertising restrictions are a challenge, not a roadblock – We successfully navigated platform limitations by adapting our content.

3️⃣ Social initiatives can have massive reach – More than 6,000 people actively engaged with the campaign by visiting the website.

4️⃣ Different platforms drive different results – YouTube generated high engagement, while Meta Ads delivered outstanding click-through rates.

Conclusion

The Smallest Support campaign became more than just a marketing case study—it demonstrated how strategic communication can build bridges between nations and people. This campaign proved that a well-planned digital initiative can reach millions, even under restrictions.

Suppose you want to launch a high-impact social project that will get noticed and create an emotional connection. Contact inseed.agency. We specialize in finding solutions—even for the most complex challenges!

If you have a similar request, please contact us at partnership@inseed.marketing

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