2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The campaign reached more than 2,500,000 people (more than half of the Lebanese population), sales increased by 28.8% in key areas. Abu Nazih was spoofed by the leading comedy show and referenced by the country's top cartoonist. A parliament deputy even used Café Super Brasil to make a point about “reading the fate of the country". 10000 visitors had their fortune read and 3500 thumbprints were collected in less than 4 days including the participation of top celebrities. The act was covered on TV stations and blogs, and a Facebook page followed the progress and linked the brand fans to the event allowing them to make a positive wish online.

Creative Execution

We created a character, a butler in the government headquarters who has access to all the ministers' coffee cups. Abu Nazih became the Lebanese people's guide to predicting the future through Café Super Brasil coffee. The campaign ran on TV & online a few weeks before the government crisis was resolved. Two months later, a new government was formed, but the fate of Lebanon was not clear yet. So we regularly picked up news headlines and decisions made by the new government to create parodies on radio spots, tying them back to cup reading and our coffee. Following the tremendous buzz, we created an installation at the end-of-year festival in Downtown Beirut to engage people directly and entice them to try the coffee. To maintain the overall idea, a fortune teller was present to read people’s cups, and as part of the tradition, imprint their thumb in the coffee as a positive wish for Lebanon's new year.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Lebanese coffee is the most popular social experience that follows a certain ritual: reading fortunes from the coffee residue, using a special terminology that can be interpreted differently depending on what the reader sees in the cup. Cafe Super Brasil wanted to raise awareness around their coffee brand in popular areas in Beirut. In a country ruled by a transitional government, and after 9 months of a major political crisis, we wanted to empower the people and unite them under one positive wish for the fate of our country.