2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

For their special edition issue covering the struggle between traditional and digital media, ArabAd, one of the region’s leading and oldest industry magazines, requested a cover design that would illustrate the ongoing industry discussion while encouraging sales and solidifying their reputation with industry professionals in the market.

Creative Execution

Our cover instantly demonstrated everything the article inside the magazine talked about. As an interactive cover, it incited people to pick the magazine up off the stands and once purchased, share it with others. Also, seeing as the magazine is mailed to all the major agencies in the region, our issue was a direct marketing tool for ArabAd. Being the first magazine cover of its kind in the region, it contributed to ArabAd being seen as progressive and forward-thinking, therefore increasing sales not just of the June issue but potentially of issues to come.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We used the cover to create a direct conversation with readers promoting the issue and highlighting ArabAd's stance in the market. Before even reading the article inside, our cover demonstrated, in nutshell, what the subject was all about. We created the region's first-ever augmented reality magazine cover. Starting with a printed cover of an empty boxing ring, we invited users to scan the cover using an AR app. Once scanned, users watched as two fighters, representing traditional and digital, appeared on their screen. Users could then press 'Fight' to watch the battle between the two literally break out.

Results

Through the application, we were able to determine how many users scanned the cover. Within the first month, over 760 users had scanned the cover and by the end of the year that number had increased to 2500. Although the cover was for the June issue, we realized that through the increased scan numbers that the magazine had obviously been kept by readers to share with friends, family and colleagues.