2015 Winners & Shortlists

Creative Execution

We found two leading influencers who were struggling with their own inability to OpenUp. “Ascia AKF” from Kuwait and MENA Top Chef “Badr Fayez” from Saudi Arabia. We interviewed them up-close and personal, digging deep beyond the outer layers of their celebrity persona to uncover internal family struggles of their own. We helped them resolve these issues for the first time, proving to our audience that it is possible to overcome our tensions. We turned their candid stories into Films we shared across Social Media, inspiring millions to have the same courage and to speak out via our hashtag #OpenUp.

On the first day, Ascia received 22,000 Post Likes and 3,000 comments on her Instagram Video. In one week, our films received 1 million views with over 580,000 likes, comments, shares, retweets. By the last week of Ramadan, we reached 25 million people regionally with over 11 million Social Media impressions. And our audience appreciated being understood, increasing their Brand Love by 42%, the highest Coca-Cola ever achieved in MENA and its most important global metric. We never set out to change the Arab world, we just wanted to pave the way for stronger connections with the people we love.

In the Arab world, expectations dominate our everyday lives. From the careers we’re expected to follow, the people our parents want us to marry, down to our formal behavior at home. These are all pressures we face, which creates extreme tension that we keep bottled up, afraid to express our true feelings as it’s considered taboo in society. During the month of Ramadan, when things are supposed to get better, brands put even more pressure on us with Ads that paint a fake, happy picture of our lives, making things even worse. As a big FMCG brand, Coca-Cola faced the risk of falling into the same trap. So we decided to go the root of our tension: the fact that we don’t tell each other how we really feel as Arabs. We invited our audience to #OpenUp. To speak the unspoken and have a real connection with our families.