Increasing sales by 5X during a crisis, reaching an audience of over 1.5 billion on a single project, setting a historical record for media coverage—these are just a few achievements of creative marketing powerhouse, Alexandra Astasheva.
Astasheva’s passion for marketing was ignited when she was selected to study at the French University of Bordeaux III. Despite the challenges of moving to another country and speaking a new language, Astasheva was determined to secure a position at a major French marketing agency. In short order, she accomplished this and more, including putting up a regional marketing campaign for HORECA and producing the annual France Sécurité client conference. Astasheva also became involved in organizing the Russian Cinema Evening in Bordeaux Festival and out of 25 participants, she received an award recognizing her contributions to the festival.
After completing her studies, Astasheva landed a Media Coordinator position at the marketing agency, Pro-Vision Communications. There, Astasheva began building her now extensive media Rolodex through hosting press events.
Looking back, Astasheva reflects on her great fortune to have started her career at fast-paced, high-caliber marketing agency. Agency work introduces would-be marketers to a wide array of marketing functions, not to mention multitasking and flexibility under trial-by-fire conditions.
In her second year, Astasheva moved up to a manager position, and soon thereafter, she approached the Client Director Chair with a bold request: expanded responsibilities pertaining to the agency’s international clientele. As a result, Astasheva began to represent the agency in negotiations with worldwide organizations. She led crisis communications, branding and also supervised the PR, digital, event and production departments. During this chapter of her career, Astasheva received her first international marketing awards, including a Gold Quill Award, a Saber Award and a PROBA-IPRA Golden World Award. The PROBA- IPRA Golden World Awards (GWA) were established in 1990 to recognize outstanding performance in public relations worldwide, according to strict international standards. The Gold Quill Awards were established 40 years ago to honor top global communications leaders. Both programs receive thousands of applicants, in fact, the Gold Quill Awards received more than 4,451 entrants since 2008. Standing out at this level was a major moment of pride for Astasheva.
For the last 6 years, Astasheva has served as a marketing executive at The LEGO Group, where she oversees brand marketing, communications and partnerships, planning and pricing, and client accounts. To increase LEGO’s share in the Russian and CIS markets, Astasheva developed and implemented a 360 campaign, which set absolute records for the brand. The team achieved the brand’s highest historical media coverage reach (into the billions) as well as 97% audience awareness of the brand’s key messages. Prior to her campaign, that percentage point was 23. Astasheva anchored the campaign around an inspiring idea: that LEGO enables all children to bring their dreams to life—and—that adults have a lot to learn from kids! Quarterly sales increased by 200% compared to the previous year. Coupled with a 150% uplift on focus SKUs, LEGO’s long-term market share increased by several percentage points. This project has been awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze Effies, the most prestigious international awards in advertising and marketing. The Effies offer over 50 global, regional and national programs to honor the most ground-breaking projects across the world, particularly those that set new trends within the industry.
In her 15-year career, Astasheva has organized over 200 marketing campaigns for Russian and foreign brands in the B2B and B2C sectors. More than 30 of her projects have received highly-regarded international awards, making her the record setter for awards received among her 50 talented colleagues. In fact, these same colleagues note Astasheva’s innovative approach to problem solving and her ability to unite teams and motivate them to achieve challenging goals. Her passion for excellence and continuous learning led her to earn a PhD, during which she wrote a thesis on the “Transformation of the Principles of Promotion of Media.” Astasheva is a member of the Guild of Marketers and the Russian Public Relations Association (RPRA) and has been invited to participate on the jury for the Effie Awards, a full-circle moment considering her prior Effie wins.
Astasheva also believes in the power of doing good and has volunteered her skills to develop over a dozen charity events. “When it comes to underserved communities or simply an individual going through a hard time, we need to step up,” shares Astasheva. Whether in business or in serving those in need, count on Astasheva to always bring her A-game.
