How It Happened: Meeting with Azat Akhmedin

On May 20, the Apple Digital Lab at Turan University hosted a meeting of the Marketing Club with the active support of the Kazakhstan Marketing Association on the topic: “Brand Communication: From Brief to Broadcast.”

The evening’s headliner was Azat Akhmedin, a marketing strategist with experience at Tele2, Kcell, and Beeline. He shared practical insights into how advertising campaigns for major brands are created — from defining business objectives to evaluating communication effectiveness.

At the center of the discussion was a real business case exploring how a telecom operator competes not with other operators, but with consumers’ привычка purchasing smartphones through Kaspi and retail chains.

During the session, participants discussed:
• how business goals are transformed into marketing briefs and KPIs
• why strategy serves as a tool for protecting creative ideas within large companies
• how audience research impacts communication
• why even a strong product can fail because of incorrect category perception
• how communication ideas are developed and eventually make it to broadcast

Particular interest was sparked by the strategic approach:
“We are not competing with operators — we are competing with the habit of buying smartphones through retail.”

Participants also explored:
— the role of research in big brand marketing
— approval processes and internal workflows in large companies
— how advertising campaign effectiveness is measured
— why strategy helps eliminate weak ideas and strengthen strong ones

We would like to thank all participants for the engaging discussion, insightful questions, and active involvement.

With this event, the 2025/2026 season has officially come to an end. The new season of “Marketing Wednesday” meetings will begin in September.