2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Branded Content and Entertainment has recently gained familiarity and popularity in our region. The fact that this is the first year of the inclusion of this category speaks to the fact that this is an emerging rather than established trend. While product placement is common and the development of films and webisodes is on the uptake, content creation for radio is a rarity. Radio channels in Dubai are cluttered with largely announcement spots that offer no variety and no interaction with a bored audience. Against this background, we came up with a unique concept titled 'Fresh Radio' with ‘made-to-order spots’ that used 45 seconds to engage the audience, effectively communicating the brand personality and whetting the audience's appetite for more falafels and for more 'Fresh Radio'.

Results

At the time of the briefing, Just Falafel was slotted to open 1 new branch each week. The objective was to increase top-of-mind awareness and footfall. The brief stipulated that the campaign must have a call to action and drive to their numerous locations. But, there was a catch: the only medium to be used was radio. At first, this seemed like an almost insurmountable challenge. To do justice to the Just Falafel brand identity a typical, tactical radio spot was out of the question. One of Just Falafel’s strengths is freshness. This was not only true of the food itself but also of their approach to creating surprising innovations out of a 1,000 year old street food. Our approach was to mirror Just Falafel's 'fresh' attitude. We chose music to reach our young, urban, multi-national target audience but we didn't just choose a single style of music. Just like Just Falafel reinvented the traditional falafel, we reinvented a traditional medium by developing on-the-spot branded content. We invited our target audience to co-create songs by giving us 2 random words and a music style. We then composed a song on the spot and played it on-air conveying the Just Falafel surprising-freshness-and-variety experience on radio. We created 10 'songs' in all, eight in English and two in Arabic. Eight spots in English covering hoedown, metal, soul, reggae, pop, dance, hip-hop and rap styles, and two in Arabic, covering local rap and pop styles. We named the campaign 'Fresh Radio' and just like Just Falafel’s menu, there was something freshly made for everyone.

Being given the opportunity to shape an improvisation experience was exciting for the target audience and requests rolled in. Just Falafel fans even sent emails directly to the company asking for a chance to participate. Word-of-mouth in the virtual world across social media was remarkable with likes, shares, comments and even lyric suggestions! Word-of-mouth in the real world was just as impressive with the target audience singing the lyrics while ordering their sandwiches.

If falafels themselves were ever able to speak and ask for a make-over from an old, traditional, unremarkable staple that was taken for granted into a young, surprising, dynamic, fun food that never failed to delight, then Just Falafel and 'Fresh Radio' would have been the answer. They may not have asked, but the make-over is now complete. 'Fresh Radio' created buzz, increased awareness, changed the perception of falafels and increased footfall to the many branches. The campaign also succeeded in pushing the potential of radio as a medium (and spawned a few copy cats as well). In summary, 'Fresh Radio' conveyed the freshness of Just Falafel's food and character and brought some much needed freshness to radio advertising.