2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The brief was to develop a campaign reminding Qatari Nationals about the importance of conserving energy during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Instead of lecturing, we used entertainment as an angle in which to get our message across. We identified a local Qatari comedian, someone who is well respected by everybody from Qatari Nationals, to Western Expats. We created thirty 60” TVCs, each containing a comedy sketch which were funny, ridiculous and inherently local. At the heart of each TVC was a message, discreetly telling people how they can be more mindful of their consumption. In order to ensure that this message had gotten across, we included a simple and straightforward competition question in each episode and prompted viewers to answer via Twitter using the hashtag, in order to be in with a chance to win various prizes.

Success of the Campaign

The purpose of this campaign was to educate Qatari Nationals on the importance of energy efficiency, subsequently decreasing per capita consumption. Meeting this objective was particularly complex, as Qatari Nationals are entitled to free electricity and water. In spite of this challenge we still have managed to obtain great results: In just one month, the campaign reached 150,000 YouTube views, which is the equivalent to half of the Qatari population. It also achieved a fan base growth of 700% on Facebook and 300% on Instagram, and most importantly, succeeded in decreasing energy consumption by 8% among our target audience. The client was pleased as the campaign received positive feedback, and succeeded in meeting the objectives and setting a path for a more sustainable future in the state of Qatar.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We started with an outdoor teaser campaign, which featured the silhouette of our comedian and a cryptic message telling people to stay tuned. This outdoor ran for 1 week before the actual campaign started. The first 60” TVC was aired on the first day of Ramadan, on Qatar TV. The timing of the media placement was also key. The TVC’s ran just after sunset, directly after the sounding of the canon, an age-old tradition in Qatar. Qatari families are tuned into Qatar TV right before they break their fast. Every day, after each new TVC was aired, a subtitled video was uploaded to the Tarsheed YouTube channel. The campaign was supported by paid, owned and earned media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.