1 Nescafe
Agencies: Zenith and Publicis ME
To celebrate how we #StayCloseFromFar, Zenith & Publicis Middle East transformed @nescafearabia’s Instagram grid into a building, made up of different balconies showcasing stories of connections. They called on people to submit their own stories, and used those to add to the ever-growing montage.
2 Burger King
Agency: Wunderman Thompson
Burger King UAE offered people discounts that match their pay cut percentage with the Pay Cut Whopper campaign. The well-timed campaign, created by Wunderman Thompson Dubai, promoted the burger chain’s new mobile app by providing customers this option on all home-delivery orders for the duration of their workplace pay cuts.
3 Ermenegildo Zegna
Dubai-based content creator and Instapoet Alisha Patel (@wordsmithalisha) was part of a maiden global social media collaboration with luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna, which sought to draw poetry into mainstream content marketing. The partnership came about as Ermenegildo Zegna believed that during Covid-19 a collaboration to create something meaningful and inspiring, with a positive message, was important. Patel said she was drawn to the work by the fact that a luxury menswear behemoth was wildly enthusiastic about the power of empathetic content to embrace change and help break stereotypes around masculinity.
4 Coty
Beauty brand Coty knows that beauty sales in-store depend on visibility and access to tester products, which a beauty assistant often explains and promotes. However, testers are no longer allowed in-store, in an attempt to limit the spread of coronavirus. Coty worked with camera app Snapchat to find a solution centred around augmented reality (AR). They developed 17 lenses for Coty’s Bourjois, Max Factor and Rimmel to allow shoppers to try on lipstick and foundation virtually.
5 KFC
Agency: Memac Ogilvy & Mather UAE
KFC Middle East launched its Kentucky Burger in an ‘Anything But Ordinary’ way. It took advertising a step further to where no one has advertised before, in Spotify Premium. Partnering with three big artists in the regionb – Flipperachi, Moh Flow and Shébani – KFC gave its fans and listeners the complete feel-good experience. It turned the no-ads platform into its media space. While fans of the artists enjoyed listening to their music on the premium service with no interruptions, they also noticed their artists sharing imagery of themselves with burgers through their cover photos, bios, profile pictures and events.
6 TikTok for Business
Agency: Netizency
Following the trend of virtual events during the pandemic, TikTok for Business launched by gathering an online community for an Open Day at the TikTok Hive – a virtual conference centre. When guests logged in, an enthusiastic man in a unicorn onesie welcomed them to the platform before leading them to an interactive Reception, the “homepage for the day”. In the Reception – a virtual hall adorned with cushions, virtual personas and TikTok videos – visitors had access to different spaces including the Auditorium, the Directory Hall, the Exhibition Hall, the Lounge and the Resource Centre. They could also download a virtual goody bag of wallpapers, PDF brochures, graphics and other conference-style freebies.
7 Bugles
Agency: Socialize
Socialize created a TikTok-first hero video packed with deep-fried memes, random visuals that changed every second and a new dance move set to infectious music. TikTok is a new platform for the brand but made complete sense for this campaign as it is massively popular with the Gen Z audience in the region.
8 Clorox
Agency: OMD UAE and FCB Horizon
Binge eating, binge-watching and binge sleeping? Sounds like your lockdown? Sounds like everybody’s lockdown. And what’s better exercise for an intense cleaning session? Introducing the Clorox Workouts Challenge live on TikTok, where Horizon FCB and OMD combined the disinfecting power of Clorox with a workout routine that’ll bring a smile to your face, keep your body active and make your home sparkle. Working with influencers living in the Middle East, Clorox got everyone moving, mopping and disinfecting.
9 Shahid x Spotify
An Ad For the Last Bad Ad You’ll Ever See
Agency: Socialize
If you can’t beat them, join them. With more and more consumers leaning towards ad-free on-demand entertainment, video streaming platform Shahid and music streaming giant Spotify created an annoying ad to promote their ultimate ad-free entertainment bundle, allowing subscribers of Shahid VIP to receive six months of free Spotify Premium subscription. Spotify and Shahid, along with their agency Socialize, launched their bundle by creating what they mean to destroy. Socialize produced the most annoying ad ever, combining all of the advertising tropes that we as consumers have grown to despise, all under the promise that it would be the last bad ad we ever have to see, provided that we opt-in for this new bundle.
10 Rakbank
Technology partner: InMobi
Tapping into the burgeoning food culture in the UAE, Rakbank launched its own foodie platform, Rakfoodie, which offered discounts at thousands of restaurants. But, being a late entrant in a cluttered market, it needed to find a new way to stand out and outsmart the competition. Rakbank built its strategy around FOodies, LOcations and MObile (FOLOMO) and built a data hub with InMobi to target users who were banking with the competition.
