2013 Winners & Shortlists

TOUCH - MY PLAN

BrandTOUCH
Product/ServiceTOUCH
EntrantJWT BEIRUT, LEBANON
CategoryUSE OF BROADCAST: TV, CINEMA, RADIO
Entrant Company JWT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Advertising Agency JWT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Media Agency JWT BEIRUT, LEBANON

Results and Effectiveness

The campaign made international and local news, inmynewworld.com had over 50000 visits in less than 2 weeks with an average spent of 12 minutes/visit. Thousands of videos were uploaded, hours long of content was generated through recordings on radio stations, #inmynewworld trended in Lebanon and even politicians contributed. By the end of the campaign, Facebook fans increased by over 50% and the twitter followers increased by 60%. Touch left the competition trailing behind with 120,000 more subscribers.

Creative Execution

The Lebanese pride themselves as the first and only democratic country in the region but also know that it’s an incomplete democracy. The government's censorship, and the political parties territorial hegemony, frustrated the people and pushed them out of the country. Approximately 100,000 Lebanese migrate every year. When the campaign gave them the opportunity to voice their opinion, they embraced it, They felt they had a voice; they called the radio programs, recorded video messages, and uploaded their info without any fear from the government. They created campaigns and shared them online. They even addressed the ministers via #inmynewworld.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Lebanon ranks 101 in the world according to the press freedom index and the 91st in terms of economic freedom and 134 in transparency. The country is divided amongst 18 sects, which resulted in 15 years of civil war. Currently the government runs a strict censorship on all media including literary publications. Moreover, there's a regulating body that governs the Local TV stations so much so that one of the stations was closed down for over a decade due to the opinions of its journalists. All creative industries are affected by the government’s censorship; over the years many Lebanese productions (film, theatre, musicals...etc) were banned from showing in Lebanon as well as foreign productions. Even musicians face censorship and some of the artists/albums/songs are banned in Lebanon. Brands avoid controversy and stick to the guidelines the government has in place since all material are subject to censorship AFTER production.