Elantil x Marketing Decoded: Elanbubu, smart budgets, and building brand awareness fast

• Marketing Decoded debuts at ICE Barcelona 2026, featuring seven CMOs and marketing leaders from major B2B iGaming providers.
• In this episode, Tereza Melicharkova, Head of Marketing at Elantil, discusses building brand awareness as a startup, the Elanbubu mascot campaign, smart budget allocation, and why AI should assist marketers, not replace them.
• Series presented by Excellent Expo, produced by iGaming Real Talk and iGaming Republic, focusing on actionable marketing insights.

A new interview series spotlighting iGaming’s marketing leaders has launched from ICE Barcelona 2026. Marketing Decoded brings together seven Chief Marketing Officers and heads of marketing from leading B2B providers to share the strategies behind their brands’ success.

This episode features Tereza Melicharkova, Head of Marketing at Elantil, who reveals how a new platform built massive brand awareness in just over a year through a viral mascot campaign, selective event strategy, and a multi-channel approach that maximizes impact on a startup budget.

Elantil is a platform provider that entered the B2B iGaming market as a new brand competing in a crowded space where most companies offer similar products and services. In a short time, the company has become widely recognized, particularly for its Elanbubu mascot campaign that dominated conversations at major industry events.

The foundation, team reputation and product quality

When Tereza joined Elantil, she started with an advantage many marketers at new companies do not have: a team with an established reputation in the iGaming industry.

“When I started, the most important thing was the Elantil team behind the product, behind the coverage. I was very lucky to join a team which had an amazing reputation in the gaming industry. It gave me fantastic tools to start the PR and make some noise from the start,” Tereza explained during the interview.

This team credibility provided the foundation. Marketing could amplify what was already there rather than trying to manufacture credibility from nothing. But credibility alone is not enough. Tereza is blunt about a reality many marketers avoid: you cannot market a weak product forever. Eventually, the truth surfaces.

“You can play on a not-so-good product for maybe one and a half years. But people start talking and people start realising it. So it’s very important that you have your marketing messaging backed up by a really good product. Marketing is essentially an amplifier,” she said.

Marketing amplifies what exists. If the product does not deliver, marketing becomes short-term noise rather than long-term brand building. For Elantil, having a solid product meant marketing could focus on reach and creative execution rather than managing expectations or explaining gaps.

Elanbubu, from hesitation to viral mascot

The Elanbubu campaign became Elantil’s most recognizable marketing initiative, but Tereza was initially against the idea. A colleague came up with the original concept after seeing a huge trend, and Tereza resisted at first.

“To be completely honest, I can’t take the whole credit for Elanbubu. It was my colleague Nadiya’s original idea. She saw a huge trend and wanted to create our own. I was very much against it. I really didn’t want to be connected with this trend, maybe just because I didn’t understand how huge it was. The more I thought about it, I actually realised that it is a great tool if we do it right,” she explained.

The key was differentiation. Elantil needed to make sure their version was distinct and not directly associated with other characters.

“We made sure that it is not associated directly. We made it a little bit more friendly. Our Elanbubu is very trendy, and it became a really good hit,” Tereza continued.

Elantil debuted Elanbubu at SBC as a soft toy with a buzzer game activation. Attendees walked around the event with buzzers, and when they completed the challenge, they were rewarded with an Elanbubu plush. The response was strong enough that Elantil brought the campaign to ICE Barcelona 2026, upgrading the activation.

“We brought it to SBC as a soft toy. We had a game with a buzzer. People had to go around, and then they were rewarded with Elanbubu. Since this was such a big hit, we decided to bring it to ICE with us,” she revealed.

At ICE, the main attraction became a Lego marble maze where attendees could win Lego sets. The activation worked, with long queues forming at the Elantil booth throughout the event.

“The main attraction is a Lego marble maze. People can win Lego sets. We are very busy. There is a huge queue. Everybody wants to get one of these Lego boxes, which I love. I’m really super happy about it,” she added.

The question now is whether Elanbubu becomes a long-term mascot or a one-time campaign. Tereza is weighing that decision carefully. The risk is becoming too associated with a mascot when the core business is a game platform, not a game provider. The distinction matters in B2B positioning.

“We didn’t want to have a mascot that is only associated with a game provider. Elantil is a platform, and explaining that from a marketing perspective is already quite difficult. We will see how this takes off. Maybe Elanbubu will be here again. Maybe it will be a transformation. We will just go with the trends and see what will be best for the next show,” Tereza said.

Standing out at ICE

ICE Barcelona 2026 was Elantil’s first time exhibiting at the event. With over 65,000 attendees and more than 500 exhibitors, standing out was not optional. Tereza’s strategy combined pre-event campaigns, on-stand activations, and strong visual branding.

“It’s not easy at all to stand out. There are 65,000 people, and you are trying to get at least a fraction to get to your stand. The pre-campaign before the event is extremely important. Because we have this game and this merchandise to give out, we got really great traction,” she said.

Giving attendees a reason to visit the booth mattered. Entertainment and interactivity drew crowds, which is essential in an industry built on entertainment itself.

“You have to give the audience what they want. It shouldn’t be the only reason, but it helps to be a little bit more entertaining. We do work in entertainment. Everybody likes to play, so you have to give the audience a little bit of fun during these very important business meetings and something to take home for their families from the conference,” Tereza explained.

Elantil’s orange branding also helped cut through visual clutter. The colour is both eye-catching and positive, creating instant recognition in a crowded exhibition hall.

“We are very lucky. Our external design team put together something that is really easy to work with. We have a very orange tent, which brings a lot of attention. It’s a positive colour,” she noted.

Smart budget allocation for startups

Running effective marketing on a startup budget requires strategic choices. Tereza emphasized that covering all channels is difficult but not impossible if you are smart about allocation.

“You have to make sure that you try to cover all the channels. This is difficult with limited budget, especially in the startup position, but not impossible if you are smart, if you have the right connections and relationships in the industry,” she said.

Events are the largest budget item for B2B marketing, which means selectivity is critical. Trying to exhibit everywhere is not only expensive but exhausting for teams.

“Having a stand is really the biggest budget from your marketing planning. So you just need to make sure that you exhibit at the exhibitions that make sense. You don’t want to be everywhere. That is not so smart. You can exhaust everyone on the human resources side,” Tereza explained.

Beyond events, Elantil focuses on LinkedIn, which Tereza calls a fantastic tool that provides massive opportunity for free, combined with PR, advertising, and merchandise.

“LinkedIn is a fantastic tool which gives you so much opportunity for free. Then PR, advertising, social media, and merchandise all help to spread the word,” she said.

Like many B2B marketers, Tereza admits LinkedIn dominates her daily routine. The platform’s importance for B2B iGaming marketing cannot be overstated. For startups in the iGaming world, LinkedIn provides reach, engagement, and visibility that would otherwise require significant paid media budgets.

“I wake up and it’s the first thing I check. It’s not very healthy, but it’s the same for all of us,” she said.

Consistency across all channels also matters. Messaging must be synchronised so every touchpoint reinforces the same brand story. Working with the right media partners who genuinely want to support you makes a significant difference.

“Proper planning and making sure that all the communication and messaging we are putting out there is synchronised and consistent. Work with the right media partners that want to support you and help you out. Relationships and the network are the most important part because they help you in the planning,” she added.

Content marketing and storytelling

Tereza is a strong believer in content marketing, particularly video and podcasts, because people are tired of reading text. This shift in consumption habits is especially important for platform providers who need to constantly explain what their technology does.

“People are tired of reading. Watching videos and podcasts appeals to them. I believe a lot in content marketing, especially this year, and on the platform side, because you just need to keep putting out content to explain exactly what your platform does,” she said.

Elantil started a small behind-the-scenes series focused on spotlighting people in the events industry and how they plan large-scale conferences. While the company considered launching a full podcast, Tereza recognised the resource commitment required. Producing quality podcast content is far more demanding than it appears.

“It takes a lot of dedication, energy, and effort. I didn’t know when I started. Now I know. You need to find the right production team, the right angle, and you need to research what the people are about to try and ask something that will prompt them to say new things. Not everyone is very comfortable speaking, which makes it more difficult than it actually appears,” she explained.

When asked to choose between storytelling and stats, Tereza chose both, but with a clear preference for storytelling. The Elanbubu campaign worked because it told a story people could connect with emotionally. The stats validated the decision, but the story drove the engagement.

“A combination of both is very important, but I love storytelling. I love looking at the stats afterwards, but storytelling wins with me,” she said.

AI as helpful tool, not replacement

When it comes to artificial intelligence, Tereza has a clear position. AI should assist marketers, not replace them. The technology is powerful, but it lacks the human touch that makes marketing effective.

“The machine still can’t replace the human touch. Even if you have content creators using AI, you still need someone to proofread and position it the right way. AI should be perceived as a helpful tool, not as a replacement,” she said.

AI fatigue is real. The companies that integrate AI quietly as infrastructure rather than promoting it as innovation are the ones moving forward. For Elantil, AI serves as an assistant in the content creation process, but human judgment, positioning, and proofreading remain essential to ensure quality and brand voice consistency.

Marketing Decoded is presented by Excellent Expo and produced by iGaming Real Talk in collaboration with iGaming Republic. The complete series features six additional episodes with marketing leaders from: Elen Atanesyan (18Peaches), Märit von Stedingk (Alea), Valentina Bagniya (SOFTSWISS), James Bennett (EveryMatrix), Yaroslava Romaniv (GR8 Tech), and Irina Veselkova (Endorphina).

See the previous episodes here.