2014 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Over the last few years, Tunisia has known a rapid development of “branded content and entertainment”. This growing phenomena is the result of lifting Internet restrictions after the revolution. In fact, Tunisians had discovered new ways to live, to feel, to entertain, to watch TV, to interact, to engage ... even with brands. The growth of “branded content and entertainment” is due to the rise of social media use in Tunisia coupled with the Multiscreening behavior development that encourage brands to create their own content. This kind of communication has offered Tunisians announcers new opportunities to connect with their target. Telco operators were the pioneers in this field by producing branded web-series, 3D animations, online contests, etc. Their success attracted other brands to do the same. It seems that branded Content gained in terms of relevance and maturity since consumers showed a real interest on it and are now expecting for more. Branded content & entertainment has a bright future in Tunisia particularly with the development of some tools still not available in the market, like YouTube solutions and Buzz monitoring tools indispensable to bring insights & add value to branded content strategy for brands.

Results

By November 2013, Tunisians’ morale was at its lowest, people were disillusioned by the continuing political and economic crisis outset three years earlier with the advent of the revolution, which quickly raised tensions and social divisions. Tunisians were more concerned about the country’s situation than anything else... There was thus a risk the National Football Team’s qualification for the 2014 World Cup might go unnoticed. Especially since the Carthage Eagles were losing their fan base’s trust and support because of the team’s recent underperformance. Qualifying third round did not seem to galvanize Tunisians and players began to doubt their ability to qualify for the finals. As Tunisie Telecom is the official sponsor of the National Football Team, the brand had to react and express its support to the Carthage Eagles and federate Tunisians around the players who needed their support to qualify for the World Cup Final rounds. The idea was to make a documentary that looks back on the national team’s epic history in regards to the World Cup, its realizations and qualifications and revive Tunisian football’s biggest names, as well as stage anonymous supporters who would explain to the Tunisian people the reasons to believe in a fifth qualification.

A 25 minute long documentary consisting of interviews with Tunisian football : players, TV presenters, trainers) and football fans of various ages, who were asked to tell their own story with the world cup from 1978 to today. The interviews were supported by archive images of Tunisian’s most memorable football moments and ended with a call to support the national team on D-day. The documentary was aired on YouTube 4 days before the last game against Cameroon and shared on Tunisie-Telecom’s social platforms such as Facebook-Twitter. The documentary was named « Ettouwenssa-Wrahom-Ettouwenssa » which means « Tunisians Supporting Tunisians ».

Over 340000 views, making the video the most viewed brand content in Tunisia Over 15000 support messages and comments on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Over 6000 shares on Facebook Over 2000 tweets containing the video link Several National Team Players shared the video on their official Facebook pages Several Print and Online media reported the video The three major radio stations reported about the video and posted it on their Facebook pages. In just 4 days, Tunisie-Telecom earned 300 new followers on twitter, 12000 more fans on Facebook, and the number of YouTube subscribers doubled. Tunisie-Telecom’s YouTube channel became the first YouTube brand channel in terms of views, in just 4 days and with one video. Following the huge success on the Internet, Tunisia’s number one and number three TV channels (Al Watania 1, and Nessma TV) requested to broadcast the documentary. Al Watania 1 aired it on prime time the day before the game, gathering an incredible 27,8% market share. Nessma TV aired it twice, two days before the game with a performance of 12,6%. Unfortunately, the Carthage Eagles lost the final game against Cameroon, but Tunisie-Telecom reached its goal of reuniting a divided public for a common cause.