Vienskiy Kvartal's 'New Currency in Kazakhstan' campaign by Grey positioned commercial real estate square meters as a stable savings instrument in Kazakhstan's
Vienskiy Kvartal Reframes the Square Meter as Kazakh Currency
Grey's 2021 ambient campaign for The Vienskiy Kvartal residential complex positions a commercial real estate square meter as a stable, predictable savings instrument branded the 'Vienskiy Square Meter,' offering Kazakh consumers an alternative store of value amid economic uncertainty.
Published in Kazakhstan in May 2021, 'New currency in Kazakhstan' reframes the act of purchasing commercial space not as a property transaction but as a financial decision on par with holding currency. The campaign's central mechanic is linguistic and conceptual: by naming the square meter of Vienskiy Kvartal a distinct currency, Grey transforms an abstract investment into something tangible, denominated, and communicable. The Vienskiy Square Meter becomes the unit of account — stable where the tenge has periodically proved volatile, physical where financial instruments remain opaque to a broad segment of the population.
The campaign operates in the ambient medium, meaning it reaches its audience through environmental placements rather than conventional broadcast or digital formats. This choice reinforces the campaign's core argument: that security is found in the physical world, in bricks and mortar, in something you can walk past, touch, and measure. The Vienskiy Kvartal residential complex, a business-class development, provides the aspirational backdrop against which the currency metaphor gains credibility. In Kazakhstan, where residential construction investment reached KZT 2.4 trillion in 2021, representing an increase of 19.1 percent year over year according to data cited by Primeminister Kz, the timing of this campaign aligns precisely with a construction market at peak momentum. The creative premise distils that momentum into a single transferable idea: the square meter is the new tenge. Clapboard scores this campaign 63 out of 100, recognising the conceptual originality of the currency frame while noting the limited documented evidence of broader execution and measurable market impact.
Vienskiy Kvartal's campaign targets a specific and well-documented consumer anxiety: the perceived unreliability of conventional savings instruments in Kazakhstan. The tenge has experienced significant devaluation events in recent years, and according to research published via the National Bank of Kazakhstan at Nationalbank Kz, financial literacy and trust in formal savings mechanisms remain areas of ongoing policy concern across the country. Against this backdrop, Grey's strategy director Alua Imangaziyeva built the campaign's rationale on a straightforward insight: if people distrust abstract currency, offer them something concrete.
In Kazakhstan, where 17 million square meters of residential space were commissioned in 2021 — an increase of 11.4 percent from the prior year according to primeminister.kz — real estate already functions culturally as a preferred long-term savings vehicle. The campaign does not invent this behaviour; it names and codifies it. By calling the square meter a currency and branding it as the Vienskiy Square Meter, the campaign borrows the vocabulary of finance and applies it to construction, bridging two industries — real estate and financial services — that rarely share creative territory.
Competitors operating in Kazakhstan's business-class residential segment, including large-scale developers active in Almaty and Nur-Sultan such as BI Group and Bazis-A, typically compete on specification, location, and price. Vienskiy Kvartal's campaign sidesteps that register entirely, competing instead on financial philosophy. Rather than promising a better apartment, it promises a better savings decision. This repositioning is strategically significant: it expands the competitive frame from property developers to include the broader financial services category, placing the Vienskiy Square Meter in implicit competition with bank deposits, foreign currency holdings, and gold — the instruments Kazakh savers have historically favoured, as noted in analysis published by Halykfinance Kz.
Executive Creative Director Yevgeniy Kostylev and Creative Director Nikita Frankovskiy lead the creative execution of 'New currency in Kazakhstan,' with Art Director Alena Timofeeva and Copywriter Victor Yershov completing the core creative team at GForce Grey in Almaty. The campaign's creative output centres on a single, disciplined concept: the square meter of Vienskiy Kvartal commercial real estate is rendered visually and verbally as a currency denomination, complete with the branding logic one would apply to a banknote or financial instrument.
The ambient medium is the decisive craft choice here. Rather than interrupting an audience through a screen, the campaign places itself in the physical environment — in the same register as the property it promotes. This creates a productive loop: the message about physical security is delivered through a physically present medium. The Vienskiy Square Meter as a creative artefact must function in that environment, which demands executional clarity. A currency must be instantly legible, which disciplines the design toward simplicity, authority, and recognisable financial iconography.
The campaign is submitted as a case study video of approximately two minutes in English, which suggests the creative team intended the idea to travel beyond Kazakhstan and reach an international advertising audience. That dual audience — local property buyers and global creative peers — creates an interesting tension that the execution navigates by leading with the universal language of financial security before grounding it in the specific geography and product of Vienskiy Kvartal. The project's lineage matters here too: according to records at Cmsmagazine Ru and Cossa Ru, the Vienskiy Kvartal complex previously received two Asia Pacific Property Awards in 2017, lending the development a degree of pre-existing credibility that the currency concept draws upon without needing to state explicitly.
No verified performance data for 'New currency in Kazakhstan' in the categories of sales lift, lead generation, occupancy conversion, or brand awareness uplift is publicly available. The campaign has not been documented as a recipient of awards at Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC Awards. Public engagement with the campaign's principal case study record, as observed on Clapboard, stands at 1,358 views, one like, and zero comments, indicating limited viral circulation within the advertising industry community.
Assessed on structural grounds, the campaign's effectiveness argument rests on the strength of its conceptual clarity rather than documented conversion outcomes. The currency metaphor is operationally tight: it gives sales teams a clear vocabulary, it gives consumers a memorable frame of reference, and it differentiates Vienskiy Kvartal within Kazakhstan's construction market at a moment of genuine macroeconomic relevance. In 2021, Kazakhstan completed approximately 45,264 new buildings according to Gov Kz, of which 42,997 were residential — a market context in which standing out on brand idea rather than specification becomes a meaningful competitive lever.
The ambient medium limits measurable reach by design, making direct attribution inherently difficult. What the campaign offers instead is a replicable brand asset — the Vienskiy Square Meter as a named concept — that could persist across subsequent touchpoints if deployed consistently. Whether that asset was activated beyond the 2021 ambient execution is not publicly documented. The Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100 reflects the campaign's conceptual ambition and strategic coherence, offset by the absence of verifiable performance outcomes and the single-asset scope of the documented execution.
'New currency in Kazakhstan' is a 2021 ambient campaign by Grey for The Vienskiy Kvartal residential complex. It positions a commercial real estate square meter, branded the 'Vienskiy Square Meter,' as a stable savings instrument, reframing property investment as an alternative currency for Kazakh consumers facing economic uncertainty.
GForce Grey, the Almaty-based arm of Grey, created the campaign. The team was led by Executive Creative Director Yevgeniy Kostylev and Creative Director Nikita Frankovskiy, with Strategy Director Alua Imangaziyeva shaping the financial-positioning rationale that underpins the Vienskiy Square Meter concept.
The campaign responds to documented consumer distrust of conventional savings instruments in Kazakhstan. The National Bank of Kazakhstan has identified financial trust as an ongoing concern. By framing commercial real estate as currency, Vienskiy Kvartal offered a tangible, physically grounded alternative to bank deposits and foreign currency holdings.
Grey deployed the campaign in the ambient medium, placing it in physical environments rather than broadcast or digital channels. This choice reinforces the campaign's argument that security resides in the physical world, aligning the delivery method directly with the message that the Vienskiy Square Meter is a concrete, stable asset.
Kazakhstan's construction sector was expanding sharply in 2021. According to primeminister.kz, residential construction investment reached KZT 2.4 trillion, up 19.1 percent year over year, and 17 million square meters of residential space were commissioned — providing Vienskiy Kvartal a high-momentum market context for its currency positioning.
Clapboard assigns the 'New currency in Kazakhstan' campaign a score of 63 out of 100. The score recognises the campaign's conceptual originality in rebranding real estate as currency, while reflecting the absence of verified performance data and the single-asset scope of the documented 2021 ambient execution.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
