Eat Arena is a 500-seat food hall in Moscow’s Ramenki district, bringing together more than 15 food concepts under one roof. It also has a performance stage, a children’s room and a shisha lounge.
Research identified two core audience segments. Visitors from other parts of Moscow were not the priority: local residents and students offered the strongest potential for regular footfall.
Regular after-work visits, catch-ups with friends and family outings with children.
I want a break from the routine at home, a relaxed meal and time with the people I love. But with children, relaxing often becomes another job: keeping them occupied. I need somewhere near home where they can have fun and I can unwind too, rather than just organise their entertainment.
«Everything you love. Just around the corner.»
For students, this is primarily a practical stop between classes and other commitments.
I want a proper meal between classes, but I have little time and my money has to cover more than food. I need somewhere close to university to eat quickly and affordably, without choosing between lunch and my other plans.
«Save your student allowance. Spend Eat Arena points.»
Audience research and insight development, communication territories and ideas for both segments, storytelling and copywriting, and participation in delivering special projects, collaborations and event marketing.
Turn the discovery of a new food hall into a food reality series. Instead of a standard promotional review, we invited food creator Georgy Bekin to visit Eat Arena stalls anonymously across six episodes, taste dishes, score them and choose the best.
To avoid presenting the expert’s opinion as the only valid one, we added real customer reviews. The clash of opinions became part of the series’ narrative.
Eat Arena was new to the market, so the audience needed independent reassurance about quality, not the brand’s own claims. The reality format turned food reviews into a series: viewers returned for recommendations and to discover the experiment’s outcome.
Greater awareness and engagement through episodic storytelling and trust in an independent assessment.
To reach students at nearby universities, we chose an environment they already trusted rather than standard ad placements. We partnered with student media outlet The MSU, integrating Eat Arena into a series of native stories and recurring formats.
The core message was “Save your student allowance — spend Eat Arena points”. Communication focused on practical value: quick, affordable food near university. The student media partnership delivered it in a familiar tone, through content created within the audience’s own community.
More student visits and greater awareness of Eat Arena among younger audiences.
Turn calendar celebrations into an emotional reason to return. For Valentine’s Day and International Women’s Day, we organised concerts by Korni and Otpetye Moshenniki, bands associated with the core audience’s youth.
Special offers from food stalls, gifts and promotions supported the concerts, encouraging spending across the food hall as well as attendance.
For the 38–40+ audience, 2000s music is a shared cultural reference and an emotional trigger. A concert was more than entertainment: it reinforced Eat Arena as a neighbourhood “third place” worth returning to for familiar feelings and experiences.
Greater venue awareness through paid seeding and event listings, with strong engagement in lead-up content, polls and voting.
I independently developed the storytelling, lead-up activations and post copy.
A monthly series of family festivals with participatory activities, each built around one food stall’s concept. A points-and-prize-draw system encouraged return visits: purchases earned points redeemable at any Eat Arena stall.
Audience research revealed a need for regular family leisure close to home. The series met that need and gave people reasons to return: every month brought a different country, programme and featured stall. It introduced visitors to Eat Arena’s different food concepts and created a fresh story each time.
Competitions and points-based activities further encouraged participation and repeat visits.
