2015 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Hakawati was the 6th most watched program during Ramadan serving over 910,000 “Hakawati” story minutes, which is equivalent to 635 days of non-stop togetherness among parents and children.

Creative Execution

We created 15 stories, which were each told in 2 episodes. The stories were inspired from Ramadan values and morals that young children could apply. Every plot was left open ended and continued the next day, by the storyteller, with the purpose of leaving families the space to converse over the moral of the story. The episodes were produced on a stage and made use of 3 dimensional elements, artistic shadows and silhouettes to trigger the imagination of children. They were aired on the number one GCC channel MBC1 and were hosted on Shahid.net as well as on McDonald’s Arabia YouTube Channel. The videos were promoted online targeting cartoon videos on desktop and mobile. We also re-targeted users who watched the first episode of each story. A display campaign was also launched on MBC 3 and MBC.net to drive traffic and increase viewership of the content on Shahid.net.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Ramadan is a month of fasting and spiritual rejuvenation, yet, on a sociocultural level, it is a time for family bonding and gatherings around Iftars and iconic TV shows that only run during Ramadan. However, those TV shows were jeopardizing the very essence of Ramadan: family togetherness. In fact, broadcasters predominantly produce these shows for adults, and consequently children took the backseat in those gatherings due to the absence TV programs dedicated to them. This shortage of children program offerings meant there was an opportunity for McDonald’s to bridge the gap between adults and children by giving them food for storytelling and conversations and at the same time drive salience with GCC Families. To achieve this, we revived the long gone ancient Ramadan tradition of “Al Hakawati”, a storyteller who used to narrate legends, fables, tales and adventures during the long Ramadan festive nights.