2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The pre-launch transmedia marketing campaign attracted over 20,000 unique visitors to the micro-site with click through-rates over 60% higher than industry standards. After three weeks on air the TV series had 10,000+ fans across its social media sites; 40% were continuously engaged and ‘talking about this’. Interactions on Facebook alone exceeded 34,000. The 04 YouTube channel had 450,000+ views and 160,000+ views on MBC's VOD site. 04 earned media coverage across the region worth $270,000+ in three weeks. Within a month after airing, MBC announced that a second season of the series will be produced and aired in May 2012.

Creative Execution

In building the social media universe of the characters, profiles were established for several of them months before the marketing campaign. These were populated with real content that each character would realistically post – comments and tweets about events in the news and in and around Dubai including photographs from events they would be interested in (eg. the F1 grand prix, the Dubai International Film Festival, concerts, Egyptian revolution anniversary, etc). Blog posts were created for one writer character and a Google+ profile set-up for the tech savvy character. By the time users discovered these pages, each had personality and credibility, providing an insight into the characters that would be appearing on their screens. Four short web-based films were also produced and placed on the 04 YouTube channel, each particular to one of the four main characters.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Over a third of the Arab population is under 30. In a highly competitive and cluttered market, MBC Group wanted to develop a break-out television drama for this increasingly media savvy audience. Recognizing and embracing the way that young people lived their lives, we re-imagined the television drama, 04. We adopted a trans-media approach to immerse its audience into the lives of 4 young men from across the Arab world, each struggling with real issues that reflect the lives and struggles of the audience. Through 23 online assets from across social media, unique websites and custom applications, viewers were able to engage with the show’s locations, characters and storylines, often in real time. 04’s characters spill out of the confines of a 30 minute television drama to respond not only to fans, but also to other characters and even events taking place in the real world.