2014 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The cinema interaction was recorded and published on YouTube, and within a mere 48 hours, the video had more than 1 million views. Another 24 hours later, it had exceeded the 2 million mark in viewership! It was also among the top trending videos in key markets such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco, and was a featured video on YouTube for several days. Overall, the idea had achieved its goal: significantly improve the brand’s equity and social currency, and truly show that Sky News Arabia is “Now & From Everywhere”

Creative Execution

Cinema is a popular pastime in the UAE due to the mall based cultural, especially during the hot summer months. So, we picked Cinema as our primary media. It is also an unexpected place to get a news broadcast, hence it was an ideal channel to generate the surprise factor and the buzz we needed. This never-before seen stunt was captured on video and uploaded on YouTube, and it generated a lot online conversations and was featured as one of the most popular videos on the Middle-East homepage of YouTube within the first few days of it being seeded.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

It’s not easy being one of region’s youngest and most vibrant news channels. As a 24-hour Arabic news broadcaster, Sky News Arabia has worked hard to maintain a fresh approach to news reporting and engage a more youthful, inquisitive audience. It delivers factual news from all across the region and the world, LIVE and faster than its competitors. And with its promise of “Now & From Everywhere”, we had to find a way to SHOW people what this means, rather than tell them. So we brought them the news from everyday places, starting with the Cinema! Introducing the "Cinema News Broadcast". The idea was to beam a live news feed directly in-theatre to the cinema audiences. The Sky News presenter would then converse with members of the audience. And in an interactive manner, show them and prove to them that Sky News Arabia is indeed "Now & From Everywhere"