World of Tanks - TANKUY! Campaign Concepts

Early key visual exploration for the World of Tanks TANKUY! campaign, aimed at introducing the brand to a younger audience through contemporary pop culture and celebrity-driven communication.

The initial direction explored a bold, energetic visual language combining realistic World of Tanks vehicles with graphic explosions, saturated color, dynamic typography and recognizable media personalities. Vlad A4 was among the celebrity options considered at this stage, alongside several other potential faces.

My goal was to move the visual identity away from traditional military advertising and create something closer to youth entertainment, gaming culture and social media content. The tank remained the hero asset, but the surrounding art direction was intentionally exaggerated: strong orange backgrounds, comic-inspired motion graphics, high contrast, oversized typography and bright cyan/magenta accents were used to make the campaign feel immediate and accessible.

I developed several key visual approaches, testing different balances between celebrity presence, product focus and the TANKUY! message. Some compositions pushed the tank forward as the dominant element, while others treated the celebrity and vehicle as equal parts of a larger entertainment brand.

These concepts were ultimately not selected for production, although I still believe there was something strong in the combination of realistic military hardware with a much younger and more playful visual language.

The campaign that eventually launched in October 2021 took a different direction. Wargaming and WildJam built TANKUY! around personal stories of perseverance, with OG Buda, Alexey Savko and Zhenis Fatbelly Omarov as the main campaign personalities. Alyona Alyona also appeared in campaign materials for Ukraine.

The idea expanded beyond traditional advertising into a large TikTok activation across Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. OG Buda recorded a dedicated TANKUY track for the campaign, while the #Танкуй hashtag challenge invited users to share their own stories about overcoming difficulties. Dania Milokhin, Artur Babich, Gusein Gasanov, Dima Gordey and other creators joined the activation