VK Video held an industrial event for advertisers, agencies and partners

The industrial event "VK Video Partner Day" for advertisers, agencies and partners about the transformation of media consumption, the struggle for user attention and the possibilities of video platforms for brands took place on May 15.

The event was opened by a panel discussion "The Battle for attention: how demand is forming today and where advertising budgets are going" — about how media consumption has changed in recent years, why users "live" on multiple screens at once, and how the market is shifting from a struggle for reach to a struggle for attention and engagement.

Anton Godovikov, CEO of T2, Alexey Tolstogan, CEO of the National Advertising Alliance, Mikhail Shklyaev, Chief Managing Director of Okkam Communications Group, Ruslan Tagiev, CEO of Mediascope, and Stepan Kovalchuk, Senior Vice President for Media Strategy and Development of VK Services, took part in the discussion. The discussion was moderated by Marianna Maksimovskaya, CEO of VK Video.

"We live in an extremely interesting era: both television and digital work well, both media have powerful coverage characteristics and their advantages. Video content remains the absolute leader in the time budget of Russians, regardless of the medium of its consumption, and it will only grow in the coming years. Mediascope is in constant dialogue with all market players. All the necessary tools for digital audience analysis already exist, and now the industry has every opportunity to move towards their full and effective use. From the point of view of measurements and analytics, both NRA and VK have made a huge contribution to ensure that the figures you receive today are as transparent and independent as possible," said Ruslan Tagiyev, CEO of Mediascope.

Stepan Kovalchuk, Senior Vice President for Media Strategy and Development of VK services, also pointed to the transformation of the network space at the moment.

"We should not compare ourselves with television, we are on the threshold when the Internet, in essence, is not only video platforms or advertising, but in general, is in the process of transformation. We need to build a new attitude towards digital content. As market leaders, we want to come to an agreement: let's come up with new advertising, new evaluation and measurement systems together — we are open to this process," he said.

In the context of change, the idea of combining all content production channels into a single system remains an urgent issue.

"Different content production channels think about what happens to the consumer during the day and how to make the most of that time. Anyone who figures out how to combine all the channels for the advertiser and the content author will be able to turn this chessboard around and set a new trend. I think the industry is already ready for this," said Alexey Tolstogan, CEO of the National Advertising Alliance.

The central part of the event was a story about the changes and plans of VK Video. The speakers were VK's top managers: Nikolay Duksin, Vice President for Music and Video Services, Daria Lebedeva, Deputy Vice President for Business Development, and Evgeny Vasiliev, Product Director for VKontakte, VK Video, and VK Music. They talked about the growth of content consumption and how using the service has become a daily habit for tens of millions of people, about the platform's product technologies, the role of recommendations, AI, and the VK ecosystem, as well as about VK Video's capabilities to solve various brand marketing challenges, from reach to full—fledged influence on the audience.

"Video has become a new TV, but with a difference: we do not work with ether, but with the user's attention, offering personalization and a huge selection of content. More than 90% of the country's largest authors are represented on the platform in almost all key genres. At the same time, our main focus for 2026 is not only big names, but also the support of new original authors," said Nikolay Duksin, Vice President of music and video services at VK.

Several major announcements were made during the presentation.:

● Deepening and developing cross-platform recommendations and combining different content consumption scenarios in VK products;

● Launch of the VK Music showcase, which will combine music and video content: thanks to a single Discovery platform, tracks from clips will be automatically recognized, and users will be able to immediately add them to their playlists in VK Music.;

● Development of AI in VK Video search: artificial intelligence will learn how to process complex user queries and select content to suit the user's specific mood and interest.

At the event, VK Video announced a visual update to the service. The "content first" principle is at the center of the changes. The new design will make interaction with the platform even more personalized and comfortable: the interface will help you find and watch interesting content faster and more conveniently.

"VK Video is growing at an incredible pace: over the past 1.5 years, the service has gone through a path that took many decades. In accelerated mode, we have created a strong product and today we plan to invest in areas that are not on the market: in recognizing and searching for elements on video for point recommendations, seamless interaction on different devices, scenarios of social interaction within content and the synergy of offline and online user experiences," said the product director of VKontakte, VK Video and VK Music by Evgeny Vasiliev.

The final focus of the presentation was the main content block on how VK Video closes the user's media consumption scenarios through the vertical of interests, authors and original content. Mitya Levin, VK Video Content Director, talked about why users log into VK Videos every day, how content depends on the consumption scenario, how ecosystems of vertical interests are formed, and why they can work more effectively than conventional advertising integrations.