International
11.11 Campaign
AliExpress launched 11.11 as the world's biggest shopping event. Russia ran the international tender for the first time — and won it. Zebra Hero produced six comedy films for six markets: 🇫🇷 France · 🇩🇪 Germany · 🇪🇸 Spain · 🇧🇷 Brazil · 🇨🇳 China · 🇷🇺 Russia
This was the first international campaign in AliExpress history fully developed and produced in Russia. Our colleagues in China trusted my team to create the communication for all of the brand's markets — we ran the tender, selected the agency, and launched a campaign that aired simultaneously in six countries.
Remind people about 11.11 — any way you can
The campaign insight: people invent increasingly absurd ways not to miss the year's biggest sale. A singer arranges musical notes into the numbers 11.11; an electrician cuts power to an entire district just to display the date on a scoreboard. A touch of grotesque, plenty of humour — and one unified signal for six markets at once.
Director Felix Umarov built a "stylised comedy" with slightly exaggerated acting — so it would work without translation in any country. Shooting took place in Russia: 2 months of prep, 4 shooting days, 4 sets, 16 synchronised swimmers, and a month of post-production.
We were running an international tender of this scale in Russia for the first time. It's worth noting that our colleagues in China trusted such a responsible process to us.
Shooting the synchronized swimmers scene
Camera on set
The crew on set