How a Ukrainian agency survived a year of war

The Who Are You agency opened its doors to the public in 2019 in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. In 2021, a very successful year for us, the number of customers and team members grew, and just before New Year’s Eve we signed several new contracts. We had great plans for 2022. Some days before the war, I returned from a business trip to Odessa, where we had launched a new project with a customer and signed one more contract.

Everything changed on Feb. 24, 2022. I woke up at 5 a.m. because of explosions. The war had started. It was very frightening, but there was no time to panic. Having made sure that all our colleagues were safe, Olia, our project manager, and I sent emails to customers to tell them we would keep in touch.

The next days passed as if in a fog. When the initial panic and fear eased, we came together to discuss what was going to happen to the agency and what we as creative specialists could do during the war. We could stop and stay in a state of uncertainty, step back and close the agency to wait for better times, or we could fight, using our skills and experience in creativity and communications to resist the enemy. We chose to fight.

With a new goal of helping our country, we started fighting on the information front, implementing projects that would help Ukrainians and keep people informed about the war. It all started with Stand with Ukraine, which we created with our partners, the Svitsoft and Top Dog marketing agencies. During the first month of the war, we posted more than 400 videos and raised more than $900,000 for Ukraine. Working was very hard; I operated out of a bomb shelter, searching for an internet connection to coordinate editing and scripts and set new tasks for our team.

Our agency also worked on other projects, including The War Diary documentary, and developed the identity, website and advertising campaign for the Mriya Ukraine charitable association, among others. However, due to the fact that all the projects bringing us income were paused, our funds quickly ran low.

In order to survive, I searched for new projects on LinkedIn, and we became subcontractors for other agencies. This allowed us to gain and retain new customers from all over the world, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Canada, Chile and Austria. We were fulfilling very different orders, from presentation designs to apartment 3D modeling to video editing to website creation.

The great war, the tragedies of Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Dnipro ... It all happened right before our eyes. And it felt like someone was pulling the rug out from under us. But we are still fighting and hoping for a better future.

Russia tried to take away our future. It managed to take a year of our lives and many of our friends who died defending our country. But it could not break us. And thanks to many people and agencies from all over the world, we can continue our work.

In the past year, I have learned three lessons that can make an agency better regardless of the challenge it faces:

Place your business on several pillars

Don't be satisfied with what you have achieved when business is going smoothly. Reserve a budget to find customers outside your established business or to develop new offers that will help you survive in hard times.

Build a team with shared values

Give them the opportunity to express themselves and implement their own ideas, because in a crisis they can play an important role in the success of their company.

Develop several scenarios for possible problems

Don't wait until the situation with a client deteriorated before you act. Develop several possible solutions and discuss them with your team and your clients. This way, your clients will know that you have a Plan B they can rely on.

Until Feb. 24, 2022, we were just a strategic communications agency. After that fateful day, we became a real family with a unique history and contacts all over the world. Our most valuable resources have been hard-won over the past 12 months: our resourcefulness, our determination to make the best out of even a little and our will to never give up.