Lviv easy to move

Promo video for the European Youth Capital contest

Fall 2021

Strategy, directing and copywriting

Beans Agency

Production

"And Action" creative agency

Client

MOLO is a new youth

Lviv in the Final of the European Youth Capital Contest

Along with three other cities, Lviv made it to the final. MOLO, an organization that creates modern public spaces, seeks development opportunities, and organizes the largest youth festival “MoloDvizh,” made sure all the applications were ready, all the arguments prepared—everything was in place, except for one thing: no video. And that’s when a challenge appeared before us and And Action: tell the world why Lviv is awesome for young men and women. The timer showed 3 weeks. Let’s go!

When you’re from Lviv, it’s tough to work on such a video because the competitive spirit takes over your creative mind, and Goal #1 becomes: do whatever it takes, but damn it, show Lviv as the best place on Earth.

We started thinking—why do we love our city? What makes it so promising for youth? We asked friends, acquaintances, followers, relatives, and anyone who happened to walk into our office—and got wildly different answers. Cobblestones, coffee, architecture, culture, universities. But that wasn’t it—that’s all Francois Banale, we were after something else. We watched videos on YouTube, and it was the same—plus some pigeons romantically flying over grand church domes.

After days of brainstorming for an insight, we realized this:

In Lviv, there’s a little of everything and a lot of a little.

That’s its secret. That’s why it’s normal here to be a coder-DJ, a bartender-eco-activist, or a cultural studies major-runner. It’s totally okay to play pétanque, even if most Lvivians have no clue what “tanque” you’re talking about.

So what’s the point?

That Lviv is easy to move.

Here, it’s easy to move physically (as long as you’re not in a car, especially when it rains) and socially—between different communities, to be whoever you want, whenever and however you want. We wrapped our idea in a dynamic creative style—because it’s all about movement—and we carefully planned every shot, transition, and the behavior of our main character. We chose a vibrant local youth rep as the narrator—Lviv stand-up comedian, actor, and humorist Viktor Rozovyi, whose unique slang and rhetoric gave the video authentic flair. No, we didn’t aim for a perfect voiceover with a perfect voice.

Sorry, man, that’s all?

Nope — we added a first part inspired by typical YouTube videos about Lviv and entries from previous years, knowing the judges expected something like that.
We gave them a twist. Local stock footage fit perfectly for the opening.

How did it end?

Lviv didn’t win, but it made every judge laugh.
The video went viral faster than we could track all the likes, shares, comments, questions, and compliments.
Lvivians were proud of it — and that was the biggest win for our whole team.