Russia Special: Geometry Global’s Andrew Ushakov

As a teacher’s son from Kiev, Andrew Ushakov was bookish and geeky but he couldn’t settle on a hobby... until he got interested in advertising. Now the Lion-winning ECD of Geometry Global’s Russian HQ, he tells Emily Ansell about his passion for his job and Russia’s bright future

At the age of 14, Andrew Ushakov got his first computer. Not yet knowing what advertising really meant, he became fascinated with computer graphics and found a gig at a small design shop when he turned 16. It was then that his career journey began. Now executive creative director CIS [Russian Commonwealth] at Geometry Global, Ushakov has collected a healthy stash of awards for work with top clients, including UniCredit Bank, Metro Group, Praktiker, ItalMotors, P&G and Volkswagen Group.

Ushakov grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, the son of a school teacher, so he spent most of his free time in a classroom. “In a way, it kept me away from the bad influences of my neighbourhood – while most of my peers were out and about getting into trouble, I was reading books and being somewhat geeky,” he reflects. He says he “tried each and every hobby” but was never patient enough to stick with any of them. Advertising became the only passion that lasted more than a week and he thinks that might be why he married a fellow advertiser, Darya Ushakova, head of digital at Geometry Global: “So I always have someone to talk to about Volvo’s new TVC or the John Lewis Christmas campaign,” he jokes.

Ushakov’s first advertising role was as a designer at Leo Burnett Ukraine. He was soon promoted to senior art director but wanted a new challenge so joined Grey Ukraine as head of digital in 2009, later becoming a creative director at the agency. In 2013, he relocated to Moscow for the role of ECD at G2, working for CIS countries. However, when agency Geometry Global was formed from the merger between OgilvyAction, G2 and JWTAction later in 2013, Ushakov took the same title at the newly formed company. Less than a year after Geometry Global’s launch it has become one of the top 10 creative agencies in Russia under Ushakov’s creative lead. 

The invention of inventivity

When asked to describe the agency, Ushakov says his favourite thing about it is its inventivity (his own merger of ‘invention’ and ‘creativity’). “We are not focussed on creating advertising for the sake of advertising or awards or spending the client’s budget,” he adds. “Our approach is to start from human needs – defining what it is that consumers lack in their lives – to inventing creative solutions that satisfy those needs.”

Ushakov says the highlight of his career so far has been creating the Get Well Kit, for Sanofi-Aventis Group, which helps people to remember their medication. It takes the form of an iPhone-case which holds pills and links to a pill-memo type app. It won 14 global accolades, including a bronze Lion, and 26 regional awards. “It’s an advertising product that changes people’s lives,” he says. “It’s for the projects like these that we all came to advertising in the first place.”

He also references the Fat No More print campaign for Povna Chasha, a dishwashing liquid brand from Ukraine. He says the project’s main challenge was the creation of hyper-realistic muscular animals. “We hired Carioca [in Romania], one of the world’s best 3D production studios and together with them we had to learn everything about the anatomy of pigs, geese and salmon.” he says. “

While we were working on the images I was on annual leave in Thailand, staying on a tiny island. So every evening I had to run along the beach with my laptop, trying to get a 3G connection to review the materials.”

Nearly two years have passed since Ushakov moved to Moscow and during this time he has seen many new advertising profess

ionals emerging from Russia’s schools of creativity. He says the future is exciting beca

use these young people see no limits, the world is their oyster and they refuse to restrict themselves to the Russian market alone. “It’s this kind of mindset that I seek in creatives,” he says. “And this is what will undoubtedly make Russian advertising great.”

Ushakov acknowledges that the advertising industry in Russia has only truly existed for a around 23 years, so it has had to go through the same development as Western advertising but 10 times faster. He believes that the process is still ongoing and the country “isn’t quite there yet”. “However, lack of decades in experience and advertising culture is compensated for by the burning desire to create great work combined with vast financial possibilities offered by the Russian market and enormous territory,” he adds. “Great advertisers will continue to erase the invisible line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ that separates the Russian creative industry from the rest of the world. As everything goes global, so will Russia’s advertising; we’ll continue to create amazing work, worthy of any client.”

He concludes with words of wisdom applicable to the Russian ad scene and to any determined creative:  “Win or learn, never lose”.