After 15 years of Lebanese civil war and 20 years of instability, resulting in poorly controlled borders, counterfeit is widespread here.
Despite strict laws against it, counterfeit is still part of the culture - everywhere to be seen; yet barely noticed. Almost any brand has a fake equivalent in stores.
To substitute for an inefficient consumer protection office, Brand Protection Group (BPG) was born, a coalition of major corporations and distributors working to fight counterfeit.
Without pointing out actual brands being imitated, we were asked to create an awareness campaign on counterfeit and promote the call center.
Using the fact that in Arabic the words imitation / counterfeit/ and fake all mean the same thing, our idea stemmed from our reality: "the closest things to you can be fake".
We used International Counterfeit Day to launch the biggest orchestrated stunt in the history of the Middle East.
Success of the Campaign
In a country of 4.5 million...
Across media, our awareness campaign reached 3,680,000 people.
Newspaper stunt reached 490,560 readers.
TV& radio stunts reached 720,000 and created massive conversation on Youtube and major blogs.
Mall stunt was seen by 27,000.
Facebook stunt reached 250 major influencers and subsequent coverage reached more than 40,000.
In total, our campaign reached 92% of the population and received free media coverage worth $375,000.
In a month’s time, the Call Center witnessed 850% increase in number of callers.
The campaign is being used at University as a successful case study.
With this level of awareness, counterfeit can no longer go unnoticed.
Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.
Leading up to International Counterfeit Day, we set up ambient in-store “fake” products and launched the TVC, radio spots, and outdoor billboards. We also sent out an imitation mob in the biggest mall in town to impersonate people. On the occasion of International Counterfeit Day, we carried out various other innovative stunts. The highest nationally circulated newspaper agreed to fake its front-page logo as part of a joint experiment, in which people were asked to spot the difference and report it. The most popular radio and TV show hosts had a fake presenter fill in for them on air during prime time. In Beirut’s biggest shopping mall, dozens of young people in branded t-shirts were released amongst shoppers to imitate their every gesture. On Facebook, we faked profiles of 250 major influencers who received a Facebook friend request from their personal imposter.