2013 Winners & Shortlists

DUBAI WATER BASH

BrandDUBAI EVENTS & PROMOTIONS ESTABLISHMENT
Product/ServiceEVENTS
EntrantTBWA\RAAD UAE Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryUSE OF DIGITAL IN A PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
Entrant Company TBWA\RAAD UAE Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Advertising Agency TBWA\RAAD UAE Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Brief

For our client Dubai Events & Promotions Establishment, we created the first ever water balloon fight in the region. The bigger challenge was to recruit thousands of people in less than 4 weeks… with little media budget.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We turned social media, normally a place for friends, into a place for “enemies”. With a campaign that taps into people’s innate desire to take sides. The campaign started with an app that lets people enlist in either the Blues or the Yellows in the fight, see which of their friends (or enemies) are on which team, and spread propaganda to recruit even more friends. After initial seeding via Facebook ads and Email blasts, the trash-talking-my-team-is-better-than-your-team spirit took on a life of its own.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

With one week left, both teams reached their maximum numbers. But that didn’t stop fans from taking to our Facebook page and demanding to enlist. We increased registration by 1,000 slots, which crashed our servers and were promptly filled up in less than 1 hour. Dubai Police had to intervene to stop the campaign for public safety reasons. In less than 4 weeks, the campaign launched the biggest water balloon fight in the region with 33,000 spectators and over 8,000 participants. The client’s Facebook engagement increased 700% and reached nearly 600,000 people (over 25% of the population in Dubai).

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Facebook was a perfect fit for this promotion given no time and little budget. The inherent social nature of Facebook and its sharing infrastructure accelerated our campaign to get people to join sides in a water balloon fight.

Credits

Name Company Role
Martin Lever TBWA\Raad Executive Creative Director
Tuan Le TBWA\Raad Copywriter
Melanie Clancy TBWA\Raad Head Of Content
Felipe Galiano TBWA\Raad Digital Art Director
Sayed Nazim TBWA\Raad Junior Art Director
Xavier Cortez TBWA\Raad Illustrator
Firas Wahbeh TBWA\Raad Group Account Director
Amira Ibrahim TBWA\Raad Account Director
Waqas Paracha TBWA\Raad Account Manager
Zaina Nasser TBWA\Raad Account Executive
Conan Gregory/Mahmoud Chemaitelly TBWA\Raad Account Managers
Sky Downing TBWA\Raad Social Media Strategist
Alain Eid TBWA\Raad Sr. Digital Project Manager
Navin Chauhan TBWA\Raad Technical Lead
Jerome Conde TBWA\Raad Senior Web Developer
Sylvia Shohdi Mindshare Director - Client Leadership
Nicolas Khoury Mindshare Manager - Exchange
Ben Mcdonald Sio2 Director
Oliver Champion Sio2 Event Coordinator
Juan Behrens TBWA\Raad Motion Designer