2014 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Our unique approach became an engaging fan-driven experience that exceeded all KPI’s. The show’s ratings broke all-time audience records for its broadcasters CBC and Rotana. Beyond TV, the show more than found its audience online with 8.5 million youths generating over 300 Million impressions across digital platforms. Finally, we’ve proved that by putting fans at the heart of everything we do, is critical to the success of reality TV, both on the screen and beyond.

Creative Execution

In a regional first, we listened to fans’ sentiment in online conversations and reacted in real time. Entire show segments were adapted or in some cases removed entirely. We even influenced what contestants and hosts wore during the show! Another regional first was ‘Tap-to-Clap’, a mobile-to-TV application allowing viewers to give direct feedback on performances via either a ‘boo’ or a ‘clap’ with results immediately fed into live broadcasts and social media. With lead sponsor Pepsi, we launched ‘Sing-off’ on Facebook – a social app giving fans the chance to compete against other, with fellow fans acting as the judges. Finally, fans even directed behind-the-scenes content, revealing elements of the show rarely seen on television but that fans were hungry for.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We were tasked with making ‘The X Factor Arabia’ the most successful TV launch of the year at the very same time established show ‘Arab Idol’, was running on the region’s biggest channel, in an identical broadcast slot! Considering its youth target audience, we needed to dominate the digital space and create a completely integrated multi-screen solution never seen before. Therefore, instead of merely letting youth’s watch, share and comment on the show, our idea was to invite fans to shape the direction of programming. We wanted to ‘give the X Factor controls to the fans’ and digital platforms proved the ideal playground.