Haret Hreik is a Hezbollah stronghold that has witnessed 4 suicide bombings in less than 6 months and is therefore a region that everyone avoids in Lebanon.
Flower Town is a flower shop located at the heart of this “Death Zone” and needed to break the wall of fear to drive sales on the shop’s most grossing day: Valentine’s Day.
The idea was therefore a very simple but powerful dare: “Would you die for your beloved?”
People were asked to come to Haret Hreik, check in and buy a flower that had a green pin on it, proving they made the trip to Haret Hreik.
The Brief
Flower Town needed to break the wall of fear surrounding its location in order to drive sales on the shop’s most grossing day: Valentine’s Day.
Flower Town’s main clientele emanated exclusively from Haret Hreik. The ultimate goal of the campaign was therefore to attract customers from outside this city, in order to increase sales on this occasion.
Naturally, people living outside Haret Hreik are dreadful when it comes to visiting the area, which meant that our idea had to build on that specific tension point.
Results
Within 48 hours, the dare became viral and the campaign instantly became the talk of the town on various media channels. The Flower Town Facebook page scored 1800 in 3 days, which is something huge in Lebanon, let alone for a tiny shop in Haret Hreik. People instantly shared the online Ad, given the universal insight that lies in the dare – which was something people thought of everyday, but had never seen in a real context before.
Leading TV stations covered the story in their Prime Time news bulletin while the press and influential bloggers instantly covered the viral dare. Flower Town’s yearly sales increased by 30% in one day, with people coming from all over Lebanon to prove their love.
Quoting the owners of flower shop: “We’ve had to restock 3 times today” (Feb.14)
“We’ve had lots of people coming from all over Lebanon and all of them mention the advert”
Execution
We launched our campaign with a simple visual that announced the dare.
The visual was rolled out Outdoor and Online to reach a maximum audience, and was supported by a radio spot that was aired mostly on stations whose audiences were outside Haret Hreik.
A Flower Town Facebook page was created. People were asked to drop by our shop and check in to buy their flowers, which was automatically visible online, hence to the whole nation.
The communication bulk was online, because the majority of our audience (active Valentine audience) was connected 24/7 through their mobile phones. This particular deployment was meant to help the campaign go viral with the influence of the press from TV to newspapers that would propel the message on a nationwide scale, and online influencers from bloggers to people who would instantly share the dare due to its highly relevant insight.
The Situation
Haret Hreik is a Hezbollah stronghold that has witnessed 4 suicide bombings in less than 6 months being therefore a region that everyone avoids in Lebanon.
Flower Town is a flower shop located at the heart of this “Death Zone” that was totally destroyed during the war of 2006 and was rebuilding momentum in times of ongoing terror in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut. Recruiting news customers was problematic given the insecurity that surrounded Haret Hreik.
As Valentine’s Day approached, we had to break convention with a customized campaign that would take advantage of an occasion that builds on Love.
The Strategy
With a simple visual execution, people were asked to come to Haret Hreik, check in and buy a flower that had a green pin on it, proving they made the trip to Haret Hreik.
This message/dare was created in this particular format to trigger the sharing process and create hype around the campaign, as Lebanese people are known to enthusiastically share controversial messages on their social media circles.
Once the idea would turn viral, people were expected to actually go to Haret Hreik, betting on the typical showoff attitude and the pride that are anchored in the Lebanese DNA.
Also, the urge to break the barriers of fear that surrounded Haret Hreik was identified as a main factor that would spur people’s reaction to the online message.