Footage posted by an influencer – who goes by the handle @MoVlogs on Instagram – has gone viral, showing a masked individual dressed in black ‘caught’ on CCTV picking up a large, seemingly valuable statue from outside a villa at night and loading it into the boot of a Careem XL branded car, and then drove away.
At the time of writing this article, the video had already claimed more than 980,000 views. The footage was then picked up by Lovin Dubai, lifting video views to more than 1.9 million and garnering more than 6,698 likes.
A closer look at the captions of each of these videos shed light on the story behind the scenes.
Lovin Dubai stated, “CCTV footage showing something being taken from a home in Dubai is doing the rounds online 🚨 The video was first shared by an influencer and has since been circulated by residents.”
But Mo Vlogs clarified, “Careem over my house with a CCTV prank 😂 #Ad #Careem.”
In response, Careem UAE clarified on its official Instagram account, “Nothing funny going on here, folks! Just Box XL at work, now moving bigger things from A to B.”
View this post on Instagram
In conversation with Campaign Middle East, Tom Sword, Senior Director of Brand at Careem, clarified the reasoning for Careem’s controversial marketing stunt, “The purpose of the campaign was to drive awareness for Careem Box XL, our new service for transporting larger items, by prioritising creativity over budget. With minimal spend, we used visual storytelling and social virality to capture attention across Dubai. By making the product the focal point of a viral video, we clearly highlighted Box XL’s increased capacity in a way that was shareable and memorable.”
The campaign was driven primarily through social media, following a carefully rolled out timeline.
Sword explained, “The footage was first published by Movlogs on Instagram without context, prompting confusion and speculation. Many viewers in the comments spotted our brand new vehicle, helping organically tie the moment to the Careem brand – exactly as intended. The video was later reposted by multiple influencers, including one on Linkedin, amplifying reach across different audience segments. A few days later, we published a reveal video clarifying that the video was a stunt to highlight Box XL’s carrying capacity.”
Here’s a look at the timeline:
– Monday, Sep 1, 7 PM: Movlogs Instagram Post – Original villa “heist” video
– Wednesday, Sep 3, 1 PM: Lovin Dubai Instagram Repost
– Wednesday, Sep 3, 10 PM: Mom_in_dubai – Instagram Story Repost
– Wednesday, Sep 3, 10 PM: Areesha Waheed – LinkedIn Repost – Villa Theft Video
– Thursday, Sep 4, 8 PM: Careem UAE Instagram Post – Official reveal
At this point in time, the campaign was also rolled out communication on Careem’s owned channels in parallel, including, in-app and CRM through push notifications, email, WhatsApp, app placements on the main homepage and Careem Box page, as well as digital and offline through studio shoot video as well as KV static adapts, flyer, e-board, webpages.
Sword said, “Social media was a natural fit for a campaign like this – it’s where our diverse audience spends time and engages most. To broaden impact, we also engaged a Linkedin creator to spark industry conversation and position the stunt as a creative marketing case study. Each channel was chosen for both relevance and reach, ensuring the campaign remains native and shareable.”
The campaign was conceptualised and executed entirely by Careem’s in-house agency, the Creative Studio.
Key audiences targeted for this campaign included new users who weren’t aware that Careem could handle larger deliveries, as well as existing box users who needed more capacity – around 20 per cent of Box users had requested the option to send larger items, such as appliances or purchases from platforms such as Dubizzle that needed to be transported across the city.
The success of the campaign is being measured by reach and engagement. The teaser video posted by MoVlogs, and reposted by Lovin Dubai, generated approximately 2 million views and thousands of interactions.
“Breaking big news on a small budget always makes for an interesting brief – embracing the obligatory cliche around out-of-the-box thinking, we wanted to make a little mischief with this one,” Sword said. “Abandoning the traditional approach of making a nice brand film and sticking it on the internet, we thought it would be more fun to create something people would naturally share – unbranded, under produced, overall very un ad-like.”
He concluded, “The response was even stronger than we expected. Aside from a few nervous moments as the Dubai Police mentions started rolling in, the resulting controversy gave our little fake film incredible reach – working out as the most efficient CPM we’ve ever had. All while subtly landing the message that Careem Box is now available to send even bigger things.“
CREDITS:
Client: Careem UAE
Concept and execution: Careem’s in-house agency, the Creative Studio.
