2015 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Real reactions were out as local laws prohibit videography in restrooms. Shares and Likes are still rising on social media. More importantly, the hotel recorded a 20% increase in guests hailing taxis, over the previous month. David Allan, General Manager, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Media City: “We thought it was a very worthwhile initiative and that’s why we chose to support it. It’s all about keeping our guests safe.” Monal Zeidan, Marketing Director - Marketing & Sales, Nissan Middle East: “Nissan believes in social responsibility and beyond our safety innovations, we also believe in keeping the region’s roads safe.”

Creative Execution

Now that we identified the advertising space, we had to use the medium effectively. A poster wouldn’t get the desired response. Our idea was to create the impression of a prison cell, to show guys where they could land up if they decided to drink and drive. For this special execution, our media team had to convince the management of Radisson Blu Hotel to allow use of the four walls of their toilet cubicles, closest to Tamanya Terrace and ICON Bar & Lounge. This month-long permission gave us the opportunity to make an impact. We created full-length graphics that stretched from floor-to-ceiling, which showed sinister-looking inmates eyeballing the visitor. When he turned around, the message on the cell door hit home: There is no privacy in prison. Don’t drink and drive. The hashtags took care of social media sharing. #dontdrinkanddrive #lifeinprison

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Dubai has a drinking and driving problem. Because people don’t think it's a big deal. The govt.’s 999 Magazine survey showed that 68% of UAE residents don’t think they’ll be caught. In the first 10 months of 2013, 572 vehicles were damaged & 11 people died in alcohol-related traffic accidents in Dubai. This resulted in prison sentences for future offenders. While Nissan makes cars with safety innovations, these really don’t help if the driver’s drunk. They wanted a CSR poster campaign targetting males 21-40. Insight: At a bar, guys could ignore media like print, poster and TV ads. But after a few pints, there’s one place they’re sure to go. The claustrophobic cubicle was the perfect medium to get a potential drunk driver’s undivided attention. Nissan’s objective was to conduct a month-long pilot project at a hotel and monitor the increase in taxis taken from the hotel lobby.