Blog
This week, the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres held its inaugural Marketing Awards in Kyiv—an astonishing and uplifting milestone given the circumstances. I had the honour of serving as a judge and taking part in the accompanying seminar programme.
As international judges who have participated in similar awards around the world, we approached the Ukrainian competition with a completely different mindset. From the outset, the experience felt unlike anything we had encountered before.
My first surprise was that they were running the awards at all. In the midst of a brutal, grinding war, you might imagine such an event would fall far down the list of priorities. Yet speaking with the organisers, it became clear that maintaining a sense of normality is, for them, a vital act of resilience.
The second surprise lay in the extraordinary contrast between the entries. Some campaigns carried profound emotional weight, reflecting the loss, upheaval, and uncertainty felt by communities across the country. Others were bright, upbeat sales promotions—the kind of campaigns that could have been run anywhere in Europe. Judging these side by side demanded a completely different perspective.
The breadth of quality was equally striking. A number of submissions showed real potential but were hampered by how the entry was put together. Others demonstrated impressive community engagement in extreme conditions, even if the marketing execution itself was less fully developed.
What stood out were the entries that brought together bold innovation, meaningful community impact, and, in many cases, commercial success—true excellence under unimaginable constraints.
Extreme circumstances have clearly sparked extraordinary creativity. One shopping centre, heavily damaged by a missile strike, moved its family events into the basement car park. Another, facing the absence of customer service staff who had been called up for military duty, launched a humorous campaign in which their pets ‘took over’ the service messaging. (You really do have to see it to appreciate it fully.)
These initiatives weren’t just marketing exercises. They were expressions of identity, ingenuity, and an unwavering determination to keep life moving forward.
It’s easy to say you’re honoured to take part in something, but in this case it truly was an honour. The resilience and imagination on display were both humbling and inspiring.
We can’t wait to see how some of this remarkable thinking shines at next year’s Solal Awards in Budapest.
Alan Thornton Co-MD of the Solal Marketing Awards Managing Director, AL Marketing