2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

By the end of the competition, more than 400 new city treasures were unlocked in Beirut (a city of 67km2). The smart-Lebanon Facebook page received more than 32,000 active users with an average of 2,200 page interactions per day. Compared to 2010, smart car sales increased by 54% in 2011. As a result, the Unlock Beirut Map was recently launched, a first of its kind, that not only gives you street names, but also, pinpoints consumer-generated shortcuts, parking spots and landmarks. The map is exclusively updated by smart car drivers,yet open for everyone to use online or on the go.

Creative Execution

UnlockBeirut.com was launched, a URL linked to Facebook, featuring a one-month long competition, looking for 18 young locals who could unlock new shortcuts, parking spots and landmarks. 100s of people applied in the first week. Everyone wanted to share his/her Beirut secrets. The selected participants got a smart fortwo and an iPhone for 3 days each. And through a geo-tagging smart app, they shared their discoveries onto the smart-Lebanon Facebook page. The contestants took it upon themselves to generate their own campaign, which created enough noise for the media to pick up on.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Smart car communication has been absent in the Lebanese market for almost 5 years now. As a result, smart is no longer a part of the consideration list when buying a new car, which has increasingly affected sales. The objective for 2011 is to re-launch smart and position it as the ideal city car among young executives. With a limited budget. Young locals face heavy traffic, parking problems as well as ambiguous street names. With this in mind, the idea was to rediscover Beirut in a smart fortwo. A competition was developed where the consumer became the salesman. By giving them the car to explore the city with and the opportunity to share their discoveries online. With the incentive of owning the car for 6 months