Every month, Campaign Middle East selects a collection of ‘Work’ to display in its monthly issue. The same selection then gets offered to industry professionals for their review in Campaign’s Private View section for the following month.
These are the picks for August – featuring work from Volkswagen Middle East, McDonald’s Bahrain, OLX Lebanon, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) and ADCB and VISA.
Volkswagen Middle East: A Different Kind of Love
This full-funnel campaign aimed to position Volkswagen Middle East’s SUV lineup not just as vehicles, but as reliable companions that anchor emotional moments in their owners’ lives. Creatively developed in partnership with Cheil and produced by Create Production, the campaign was built on the insight that Volkswagen Middle East’s audience tend to live beyond convention.
The campaign included four spots for each of Volkswagen’s SUV models, showcasing each car to be meticulously designed to cater to a variety of lifestyles and needs.
Agencies: Cheil, Create Production
McDonald’s Bahrain: Buy the Dip
Drawing from the local insight that buying US stocks is common among traders in Bahrain, the QSR brand made the connection between stock market ‘dips’ and McDonald’s dip sauces for this timely campaign. McDonald’s sought to drive awareness and engagement in a way that felt unexpected but rooted in local habits.
Rolled out across out-of-home (OOH) and digital banners, the campaign’s centrepiece was an in-app mechanism featuring limited-edition ‘Dip Bundles’ redeemable using loyalty points. These points were linked to the Nasdaq index. When the Nasdaq dipped, the number of points required for redemption fell accordingly.
Agency: LEO UAE
After years of public debate and confusion between ‘OLX’ and ‘Dubizzle’ in Lebanon, the brand finally decided to let its devoted community of users pick its name through a digital-first and influencer-leaning campaign that put both these names to a public vote. The brand teamed up with 11 Lebanese comedians to ask users whether they preferred ‘OLX’ or ‘Dubizzle’.
They created hilarious content, highlighting the ongoing name confusion, and encouraging audiences to vote through Instagram polls and a dedicated landing page. The campaign made a statement about how brands ought to listen to their audiences, prioritise brand equity and remain agile enough to act on consumer sentiment.
Agencies: The Goat Agency, Mindshare MENA, Cachoiera Production house: Moving Frame
RAKTDA: RAK Summer. Unscripted.
This quirky take on summer travel in RAK follows a narrative of the creative team abandoning their posts to enjoy RAK’s summer offerings, therefore leaving the ‘real tourists’ in charge to showcase the destination’s allure. Rather than showing idealised, overly curated tourism moments, the campaign leans into humour, imperfection and relatability.
The campaign was rolled out in the UAE across outdoor billboards, radio spots, cinema advertising and influencer collaborations. It also extended to an activation in partnership with the UAE’s homegrown ice popsicle brand House of Pops which included a limited-edition ‘RAK Summer Sunset’ flavour.
Agencies: Impact BBDO, Tales & Heads (PR)
ADCB x VISA: Egyptian Generosity Levels Up
To create awareness about their new ‘Masri Card’ credit card among Egyptian audiences, this campaign targets individuals who use credit cards on a daily basis for small, everyday payments – specifically, people interested in cashback benefits.
The core idea of the campaign was to lean into the deeply cultural Egyptian spirit of helpfulness and generosity, which is deemed an important part of daily Egyptian life. However, given inflation and the rising cost of living, the hero film hilariously shows how this could be gradually fading. Shot in a docu-drama format, the ad humorously captures how Egyptian generosity has ‘levelled up’ after the Masri Card appeared.
Creative direction: Sherif Mounir Production house: Everyone Films, The Barber Shop
To keep up to date with the latest Work from the region, click here.
