1) JWT Entertainment – ‘Abla Fahita’
JWT Entertainment in Cairo won Egypt’s first ever titanium Lion at Cannes in June and it won for ‘Abla Fahita’, a female puppet turned pop star and chat show host. Described as an “entertainment brand that has created an entirely new business model in advertising”, the puppet began life advertising for brands but has since become an entertainment brand in her own right. She released a hit single with Hassan el Shafei, launched her own prime time television chat show – Live from El Duplex on CBC – and has been visible across online, social media, mobile, TV and outdoor.
2) UN Women – ‘Give mom back her name’
A campaign encouraging Egyptian men to say their mother’s name has helped in the fight for gender equality in the country. Within less than 24 hours of launching the film on Facebook and YouTube, the campaign – created by Impact BBDO – was the second most shared film on Facebook worldwide, with more than 25,500 shares. In the first week, more than three million views rolled in and numerous regional and global news networks ran the story. The film simply asked a number of men what their mother’s name was.
Agency Impact: BBDO Dubai
Creatives: Fadi Yaish, Maged Nassar, Tameem Younes, Aunindo Sen, Mohammad Nada
Directors: Maged Nassar, Tameem Younes
Production: company Bigfoot
3) SmartLife Foundation – Project Akshar
Winner of the only integrated gold at the Dubai Lynx in March, Project Akshar sought to help labourers in Dubai acquire better jobs and salaries by launching free English classes. To encourage them to enrol it showed them how easy it was to learn English by transforming their everyday rituals of labour into everyday opportunities to learn. The project resulted in the graduation of over 5,000 labourers from blue collar to white collar jobs.
Agency: FP7/DXB
Creatives: Paul Banham, Josephine Younes, Nayaab Rais
4) Johnnie Walker – ‘Keep the flame alive’
A silver winner at the Dubai Lynx and a bronze winner at Cannes, Leo Burnett Beirut’s campaign for Johnnie Walker asked the Lebanese people to ‘Keep the flame alive’ as dark clouds once again loomed over the country. The agency set up a digital ecosystem allowing for cross-platform, real-time conversations and crowd-sourced messages of hope that were spread through the use of the hashtag #keepwalkinglebanon. The campaign included events, digital activation, online film and out-of-home.
Agency: Leo Burnett Beirut
Creatives: Areej Mahmoud, Davina Atallah, Nadia Deghayli, Lama Bawadi
Production: company Stoked
5)Mobinil – ‘Anonymous Giver’
Mobinil’s Ramadan campaign utilised the unbranded hashtag #anonymous_ giver to promote the art of giving without expecting anything in return. Two hundred fridges were placed around Cairo for people to fill with food, while shelves were left for passersby to leave school books and racks were placed in the streets for secondhand clothes. Musicians and bands became involved with performances posted on social media before the revealer video was released featuring Arab Idol star Mohamed Rashad. His humble and kind- hearted personality helped the campaign tremendously with the music video now just shy of six million views on YouTube.
Agency: Leo Burnett Cairo
Creatives: Osama Arnaouty, Mohamed Fouad, Bechara Mouzannar
Production company: Lighthouse
6) Emirates NBD – ‘Hey future me’
A grand prix winner in the direct category at the Dubai Lynx, this campaign sought to attract affluent parents to Emirates NBD’s children’s savings plan by showing them their children’s real dreams, aspirations and uncertainties. It did so by asking children to send a filmed message to their future selves, which were then watched by their parents. The campaign straddled branded content, direct, online and social media.
Agency: FP7/DXB
Creatives: Josephine Younes, Nayaab Rais
7) Egypt Tourism Authority – #ThisIsEgypt
Unveiled at the World Travel Market and officially launched in December, J. Walter Thompson Cairo’s first campaign since it won the $68 million account for Egypt Tourism Authority has the whole shebang in terms of integration. The hashtag #ThisIsEgypt may have been hijacked for a while but with TV, online, social media, print and outdoor, the campaign is striking and also asks Egyptian youth to capture and upload photos in order to show the world how beautiful Egypt is.
Agency J. Walter Thompson Cairo
8) Sakker el Dekkene – ‘Lebanon4Sale’
Winner of a gold media Lion at Cannes, this campaign for anti- corruption NGO Sakker el Dekkene utilised guerrilla marketing, public relations, outdoor and online to fight institutional corruption in Lebanon. The campaign continued throughout the year and in October included a music video featuring independent music star Tania Saleh. The two-and-a-half minute clip featured Saleh singing a self-penned number, also called ‘Sakker el Dekkene’. It was interspersed with footage of recent anti-government protests. Formed last year, the NGO collects data on corruption across Lebanon’s public administration. Saleh’s lyrics called on people to ‘Stand up. And shut down the shop (of corruption)’, by reporting instances to the organisation.
Agency: Leo Burnett Beirut
Creatives: Areej Mahmoud, Joseph Abi Saab, Tonie Tannous, Rana Khoury, Andrew Assi, Tarek Bacha
Director: Wissam Smayra
Production company: Clandestino
9) Chipsy – ‘Smiles’
A gold winner at the MENA Effies, Impact BBDO Cairo’s ‘Smiles’ campaign for Chipsy kicked off with an online film and a TV commercial starring Egyptian comedian and actor Ahmed Helmy. It went on to incorporate outdoor, social media and in-store as it sought to spread a smile across the country, which, according to research, had become one of the most miserable nations on earth following the revolution of 2011.
Agency: Impact BBDO Cairo
Creatives: Hussam Morou
10) Dubai South – City of You
A new ‘cultural movement’ campaign was launched earlier this year to unveil Dubai South – previously Dubai World Central – as the ‘City of You’. The campaign created by StrawberryFrog included TV, outdoor, print and digital executions and saw one of the world’s most renowned illustrators – Mats Gustafson – create original water-colour sketches that artfully capture Dubai South’s core values of ‘humanity, dignity, optimism and community’.
Agency: StrawberryFrog
Creatives:Scott Goodson, James Casey, Justin Luke, Stuart Fink, Ginger Robinson
Illustration: Mats Gustafson
