2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Branded entertainment in the MENA region is still in its infancy. While there are clients and networks that have embraced this form of communication, there are still several networks which area wary of how the communication is perceived. With the prevalence of state run networks across the region, the ability to create content is limited. It is more accepted with private and paid channels. The ability for networks & talent to craft carefully created programs to appear as though they are not a paid endorsement of the product is the key to balanced success.This narrow window of accepted branded content is navigated by only a few agencies with specialized divisions.

Results

Penguins in the Desert? Only in Dubai! Snow Penguins flew all the way from Sea World in the US to make Ski Dubai their new home. Ski Dubai had spent a fortune to get them here to make this the biggest news of 2012. But with endless leisure attractions to choose from, UAE residents remained largely unaware about them. The challenge was to make Ski Dubai stand out and get families to visit the Penguins. If people were not coming to see the penguins our idea was to take the penguins to the people. Meet Abe & Sara; A penguin couple who come to Dubai to meet their cousins at Ski Dubai, but on their way Abe & Sara kept getting distracted by the beauty of the city and spent much of their time being tourists! Their story was told through a YouTube Series which chronicled their amusing adventures from landing in Dubai all the way to the big family reunion. Abe & Sara broke all the rules in the Penguin tour book as they travelled across Dubai on the metro & in taxis, shopped in the Gold Souk, even suntanned on the beach! To top it all, they became the first ever penguins to fly! Ten webisodes chronicling their travels were serialized on Ski Dubai’s Facebook page and shared as mobile downloads. The nation befriended the visiting Snow Penguins & followed their story on Facebook. The Penguin News Network documented and reported their journey via spoof news in newspapers and radio. Abe & Sara even started writing a travel blog for their fans. Soon they became famous appearing on popular TV shows & meeting their fans in person. Abe & Sara invited everyone to come meet the entire family in Ski Dubai!

Leveraging the growing popularity of online content, we created a unique program series on YouTube called Spot the Penguins.The series told the story of two penguins Abe & Sara who come all the way from Deep Sea World in the US to Dubai to reunite with their cousins in Ski Dubai. The story was serialized on YouTube through Ski Dubai’s Facebook page. The audience was also able to follow their story via Abe & Sara’s personal travel blog as well as Penguin News Network’s updates in 7 days, UAE’s leading tabloid newspaper.

Customers' intention of visiting Penguins improved from 29% to 40% post campaign. Awareness of Penguins increased by 17 points to 46% post-campaign (Source : Effective Measure Brand Health Tracker) On Social Media, Spot the Penguins series got 130,000 views in just 6 weeks. 'Spot the Penguins - Trailer' episode got 37000 mobile downloads in just 3 days. The series was also picked up by leading news channels such as Emirates 247, Read and 7 Days. 3 videos consistently featured as the most shared videos in UAE on the YouTube trends dashboard. (Youtube Insights/Social Analytics) The average engagement rate on the Ski Dubai Facebook page increased from 2% to 11 % during the campaign. In addition we added 12,000 new fans (an increased of 17% fans) during the campaign.(Source : Facebook Insights). Six weeks into the campaign, footfall to Ski Dubai increased by 11%, driven mostly by large families. Overall sales for Ski Dubai increased by 20% YoY. (Source : MAF Leisure Tracker) We achieved all of the above with a minimal investment of only $57,000.