2015 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

With minimal ad spend of $12K, we delivered an earned media value of $520,000 driven mainly by the free content space delivered on 10 radio stations (Agency Estimates based). Over and above, we delivered approx. 200K views on YouTube and Facebook (Source : Social Data) In less than 4 weeks, ‘It’s a Goal’ anthem was able to engage 6 million fans (Source: IPSOS). We received approx 200 commentaries via Facebook across 15 languages.

Creative Execution

UAE football is known for its ‘over the top’ football commentaries. We invited football fans via social media to become a commentator and record their own ‘over the top’ commentaries in their own language and style. Then we mashed-up these multi-lingual commentaries to create UAE’s own ‘unofficial’ FIFA Anthem ‘It’s a Goal’. The song reflected the passion and cultural diversity UAE fans as well as the spirit of the World Cup. Next, we did the unthinkable. We negotiated with leading radio stations to insert the song into their on-air playlists. This wasn’t easy given that we weren’t a music label nor had the backing of any artists. We started with 1 station and in no time the song went up the charts. Soon 9 more stations approached us to air it. We also shared the song via social media to keep up with fan’s demands.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

So what do you do when the brief is to activate your brand around World Cup, when you have no official bragging rights to the event nor the budgets to match the muscle of big spenders ? Emirates NBD needed to connect with UAE football fans around the world’s greatest sporting spectacle. But let’s face it, we are just a local bank. We couldn’t own the teams, nor the players and not even their jerseys. So we decided to own the fans and do what no bank had ever done before. Turn the bank into a music label !