RBC · August 2018

Media Consumption and Mobile Advertising: The Mail.Ru Group Strategy

For three years we haven't looked at TV money — we look at retail money. That's where the main advertising budget of the future is concentrated, and the platform's job is to offer tools that let you measure it and prove effectiveness.

— Elina Isagulova, VP of Advertising Technology at Mail.ru Group

A Turning Point for the Entertainment and Media Industry

In 2018, the global entertainment and media market was experiencing a structural turning point. According to PwC's forecast, by 2022 the market would reach $2.4 trillion — growing at 4.4% per year. Russia showed higher dynamics: 8.8% annually, growing from $22 billion in 2017 to more than $33 billion by 2022. It was at this inflection point that Elina Isagulova was shaping the commercial strategy of Mail.ru Group — Russia's largest digital advertising holding.

Mobile Overtakes Desktop

In 2018, for the first time in history, global mobile internet advertising revenues exceeded desktop revenues: $128 billion versus $124 billion. In Russia, mobile advertising already accounted for 64% of Mail.ru Group's social network advertising revenue. Users were moving to smartphones faster than advertisers could adapt their strategies.

Under Isagulova's leadership, Mail.ru Group built anticipatory infrastructure: myTarget — a targeted advertising platform covering VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Mail.ru audiences — offered tools for measuring the real offline impact of digital campaigns long before this became the market standard.

From Reach to Provable Effectiveness

The key change was the shift in focus from reach metrics to measurable effectiveness. Mail.ru Group launched Performance Retail — a product that allowed advertisers to track how online advertising converted into offline purchases. In partnership with X5 Retail Group, advertisers could see exactly how many people visited a store after an ad contact.

This changed the nature of the dialogue with advertisers: from "we reached 10 million users" to "your campaign brought 50,000 buyers into stores." This kind of evidence base enabled competition for retail budgets — the largest and most demanding advertiser category.

New Content Consumption Formats

Simultaneously, Isagulova tracked the transformation of media consumption. Virtual reality was growing at 51.3% per year in Russia. Esports at 25.5% annually. OTT video services at 13.6%. Streaming was displacing traditional TV among younger audiences. Mail.ru Group was preparing for this transition: video advertising, native formats, and UGC content work on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki became commercial development priorities.

Winner of Kommersant's "Best Commercial Director in IT" award for 2018, Elina Isagulova implemented a strategy at Mail.ru Group that became a benchmark for the entire Russian digital advertising market.