2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

For the first time in the region, the 2015 Men's Handball World Championship was hosted in Qatar. However, there were two major challenges/problems that needed to be addressed drastically. Handball isn't a popular sport in Qatar, and Qataris don't like attending live sports games in general. Moreover, the hosting country through the Qatari Organizing Committee cannot promote for its national team because that would be against the handball championship regulations! So how can we make Qataris get interested in the Handball, and go watch the games live at the stadium!?

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Qatar National Day, a time of passion and pride, was just 3 weeks before the championship. So we took advantage of that and used The National Day to launch our own patriotic song to fuel Qatari's pride while packaging it under the Handball theme.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The stadiums got filled with people. Sold out tickets to Qatar matches. The Cheer/song was used by Qataris to cheer live for their national team in every match they played. It was an obvious newly born love for handball by Qataris. Our cheer also helped boost Qatar National Team all the way to the final game, for the first time in history.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We launched our patriotic song on The National Day through radio, online videos, social media, and print ads. All channels drove people to our website where we posted the tune and lyrics of the song. We also created a competition by asking people to film themselves singing the song and submit it in order to win prizes (iPhone6). Our catchy tune and lyrics rocked the nation. BUT THAT WASN'T OUR MAIN GOAL. As planned, our song turned into a national cheer, pumping up Qataris and driving them to the stadium.