2014 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Branded content and entertainment in Lebanon is still a relatively new concept. While the online community is growing and brands have been slowly and steadily taking their communication online, generating branded content hasn't been tackled like it has elsewhere in the world. Mobile applications are very popular with the Lebanese. The younger demographic (below 45 years old) live their lives through their mobile phones and are passionate about finding the newest or latest app. However, while there are many local apps, most of them are direct and straightforward, bluntly selling their product or service through the application. Not many have created an app that can simultaneously offer a worthwhile service and experience while also speaking for a brand.

Results

Our objective was to create a way to break through the clutter of Valentine's advertising this year and give Mukhi Sisters a new way of communicating to their target, while retaining their brand positioning of being young, fresh and full of attitude. As a female brand, we wanted to create something that would appeal to women but also expose the brand to men that were stumped for ideas this Valentine's. So we created Love Translator, the app that women always wished men had, but until now has never existed. The first stage was creating the conversational database that would be the foundation of the app. We invited 6 women (aged 18-45, with a range of relationship statuses) to contribute to several brainstorming sessions, where along with our female team members, deliberated for days on the exact translations. After many discussions (sometimes heated!) we filtered through the results to decide on the most accurate and relatable translations that would be the starting point of our database. Then came the design and development. Our objective has always been that this app not be taken as satire. Mukhi Sisters is a brand that has always stood for the independent, empowered woman and our aim was to make Love Translator the tool that would help men understand the beautiful, if somewhat hard to decipher, complexities of a woman. So we opted for a sober and straightforward, yet attractive design as an interface to user-friendly interaction. By leaving the brand hidden behind a clickable cover, we gave users the option of using the app independently of the campaign aspect.

Upon launching the app our initial feedback came in the form of users' almost immediate social media activity. On twitter and Instagram, users shared the app and their translation results using the #lovetranslator. We were also able to evaluate the audience's draw to the app through the thousands of submissions for translation suggestions through the app's direct "suggest a translation" option. Through these submissions we were able to see that users immediately understood and appreciated the concept.

In a span of a week the app was downloaded over 6000 times, making it the No.1 Utilities app on the the Lebanese App Store, and featured in the top 100 in 12 countries around the world. Local, regional and international blogs and websites have featured and posted about the app and users shared their translation results and the app itself on Twitter and Instagram. It has also received coverage on TV, radio and press calling this year's must-have app for Valentine's. For Mukhi Sisters it has been a great success. Not only has it reminded its clientele that the brand is one of the best options for Valentine's but it has also exposed the brand on a worldwide level.