2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

LBCI wanted to launch its new thematic station LBCI DRAMA. So when LBCI approached other TV stations to buy media time for the launching campaign, all of them refused to run it. More generally, summer of 2012 was the apogee of competitive assail on LBCI, all-time leading TV station in Lebanon. It essentially marked a broiling, media-centered attack on the organization. False rumors fired at the group's equity alongside misleading advertisement that discredited the station from its anchored leadership.

Results

In the midst of this "dramatic" turn of events, LBCI had to find a way to overcome the competitive obstacle. On July 20, 2012, a premeditated amateur video was anonymously published online. It featured one of the most popular Lebanese stars in a scandalous cat fight. A renowned Lebanese restaurant was transformed to a shooting set to reflect a usual diner setup and therefore intensify the disrupting element. With almost no budget at all, the scandalous brawl was orchestrated, employing one of the famous and glamorous Lebanese actresses Ward El Khal, and shot with an amateur camera. Premeditating an event that is almost guaranteed to create buzz and ripples is a course that is highly suitable for the Lebanese market and TV viewership for a drama station in particular. The use of an online platform was also elemental, given the significant weight of the Lebanese online community.

Lebanese citizens have developed a great passion and need for sharing emotional, exciting or unexpected events, which happens to be Webster’s definition of Drama. We were to launch the new station, based on that social truth. Moreover, we aimed at turning the station’s dramatic situation and the relentless competitive bombardment to LBCI’s own advantage. By giving people a juicy dose of drama and placing it where they’d inevitably bump into it, we’d grab their full attention and therefore introduce the newly born station at a later stage, once the word is out on the brawl.

In literally 4 days, the viral video got more than 250,000 views out of a 1.3 million online community. The news spread like a virus. The malicious gossip even caught the sharp attention of LBCI's direct competitors who unanimously covered the scandal, on their 8 o'clock news and through influential bloggers. All covered the drama scoop, except LBCI. 6 days later, and to the surprise of all, LBCI announced it would unveil the truth behind the viral fight. The star who never answered any query during the dramatic week revealed the truth on the main news bulletin; the last thing you'd expect from an allegedly collapsing organization: The birth of a new affiliate station - the first Lebanese thematic channel ever