Lenta is a national retail chain (both food and non‑food). In 2024, Lenta was #4 and demonstrated the most dynamic growth. Despite the positive trends, the gap with the top three leaders remains significant, and the company’s budgets are lower. Continuing the competition requires significant effort. Since 2025, the dynamics of consumer spending have slowed down. There are no opportunities for natural growth — to grow, you need to outpace your competitors. Furthermore, hypermarkets remain the leading business formats for Lenta, but customers are shifting to convenience stores, discounters, and online stores. Lenta's audience is very broad. The campaign’s audience included both regular customers — holders of loyalty program cards — and competitors’ customers who were attracted by the promotion. The customer has become as rational as possible. 62% of buyers state that they regularly participate in promotional offers.
Problem
How can one continue to grow in the face of the most intense competition from major federal players and changing consumer strategies? Promotions have become a commonplace and a mandatory type of activity. At the same time, both the mechanics and the prizes become repetitive and lose their appeal. A promotional campaign was planned for Q2. The idea behind the promotion was quite simple: for regular purchases of a certain amount, customers receive electronic chips that they can exchange for knives from the promotion’s collection (by paying an additional 1 ruble). However, competitors are not idle either. The goal was to make a strong statement, stand out from other promotions, and attract not only own customers but also the audience of other chains. How to lure consumers to hypermarkets that are losing popularity? And how to create an emotional connection with the Lenta brand? Campaign objectives were • Sales growth forecast +12.3% • Increase foot traffic at Lenta hypermarkets • Increase the size of the purchase basket • Switch the target audience from other retailers’ loyalty programs.
Solution
It was decided to strengthen the campaign with celebrity involvement. It was necessary to choose not just a media person, but a person with great viral potential, fame and attractiveness to a wide audience, especially its solvent part, as well as with an impeccable image. The choice fell on Leonid Kanevsky, and the choice was right, confirmed by research. Kanevsky is a popular actor whose image is strongly linked with the detective genre and true crime shows. In addition, he has an incredible number of memes related to his role as the host of the series “Investigation Led… with Leonid Kanevsky.” The campaign has become more vibrant – clear and sharp humor, not just a celebrity, but a legend for many generations, and a non‑trivial connection with the category of knives. “Sharp Profit” in the true crime format, performed by Leonid Kanevsky. Now every customer at Lenta can feel like the hero of a detective story — with a profitable resolution at the checkout. 360‑degree channels. TV was chosen for coverage, reinforced with digital placement and integration into True Crime podcasts, and PR was used. Leonid's video messages for the Lenta telegram channel turned into a detective story that ran parallel to the campaign and maintained interest in it, and the videos themselves turned into new memes shared by subscribers. And the chain's stores have become the real scene of an unfolding detective story around knives "for the ruble."
Results
The actual sales growth (over 3 months) exceeded the forecast by 47% (over 4 months) Forecast +12.3%, actual +18%, an increase in the frequency of visits by +15.4% and an increase in the average check by +2.6%. A complete sell‑out of the knives was recorded, and we were forced to end the promotion a month earlier than planned. 23% of the campaign participants stated that it was Leonid Kanevsky, as the campaign’s hero, who drew attention to the promo and influenced their desire to participate. The image also influenced +14 points for “successful and profitable purchases”, +4 for “attractive prices”, +10 for “optimal assortment”, +9 for “pleasant to be in”, +12 for “energizes with positive energy”. The growth is shown in comparison with a similar promotion, but without Kanevsky. 53% of respondents had an improved attitude towards “Lenta” thanks to the promo.
