Do you want to have some sangria for a “like” on Facebook? This was one of the offers of AEGEE-Kyiv at their PR stand today. The Ukrainian antenna chose a great place for presenting itself today: at a market at the popular park Peizazhna Alley, among musicians, craftsmen, children selling their creations and boys making money with lemonade stands. “We gathered around 80 e-mails addresses and reached more than 100 people”, says Anna Pykhtina (Smailikova), PR-Responsible of AEGEE-Kyiv and PR-Responsible of the SUCT.
Golden Times: How did you get the idea to make AEGEE PR there? The market was not related to the university…
Anna Pykhtina: Not at all. This market is new and popular way to sell things among youth in Kyiv now. Especially in summer we have a lot of fairs outside, in most popular places for youth. Usually designers and people who sell street food there are taking part in these markets. So, as I adore this kind of things I asked the organizers if we can take part and they agreed. We gave everyone sangria, maps of the Summer Universities, stickers and brochures. And also we showed our collection of T-shirts, not for sale, but just to attract people.
Golden Times: Nice! You think that many will become members?
Anna Pykhtina: Yes, because we asked them to like us on Facebook and leave their e-mail addresses, so we can easily reach them. We also invited them to our next meeting for new members, in one week. So everything was structured.
Golden Times: Your antenna does many AEGEE PR actions. What makes this special?
Anna Pykhtina: This exact PR action was really easy to do and it was amazing to have immediate feedback – we met lots of young people who we talked to about their possible role in AEGEE. For example, today we met a guy who lives in one of the cities we will travel to during our SU. So now we have a guide! And this live communication is the best thing as for me – you can approach anyone and focus on things they are interested about. We also asked them to choose a place on the map where they would like to travel to – and gave maps of SU to show that it’s possible.
Golden Times: What did the people like most or what impressed them most today?
Anna Pykhtina: Most of them were impressed about the possibility to travel and have many, many friends all over Europe – and some wanted to contribute to our SU. We also emphasized that AEGEE is the place to make your own project, it’s a great platform for creativity.
Golden Times: Weren’t they surprised that you advertised AEGEE with English-language signs?
Anna Pykhtina: No, for Kyiv English is absolutely fine. By the way, we also got some partners!
Golden Times: What kind of partners?
Anna Pykhtina: There were people from Kyiv cafés, creative spaces and shops and we could talk about partnership.
Golden Times: Why are shops and cafés interested in cooperating with AEGEE?
Anna Pykhtina: We have an impressive database of e-mails addresses and more than 3000 people, who follow us in social networks. So, for partners it is great to ask us to promote their events. From their side, we can become partners of their events and our logo can appear on their websites, which is a really cool additional way to promote ourselves!
