2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The client needed to recruit the youth of today, their future clients. So “The Makers Account” included benefits targeting this audience’s interests, allowing us to surpass our business target faster than expected. This campaign enabled us to reach a wider audience, shaking Byblos Bank’s positioning to become the supportive “cool uncle” of Lebanese banks. The Lebanese youth is born into a world of expectations, sometimes forced by society into making life-choices they’re not convinced of. And even if it takes them more time to accomplish anything, they are grateful, hopeful, and relentless. In Lebanon’s state of paralysis, this youth needed an understanding voice of change. So we used their rhetoric, wrote their pledge of change, inviting them to ‘create who they are’. Target audience was highly receptive; for once they were ‘talked to’ not ‘told what to do’. The client was able to acquire “The Makers” of the future.

The Campaign

Byblos Bank wanted to launch a product dedicated to the youth. When most Lebanese banks had already launched solid youth campaigns, Byblos Bank was still perceived as old and traditional. We needed to create an impactful campaign, knowing that the Lebanese youth is sharp, critical, and dislikes financial corporations. Along with wanting to better the bank’s positioning in the youth’s mind, by creating a relevant account to their needs, the aim was to recruit many young individuals today, the decision makers of tomorrow. Thus, “The Makers Account” was created. With the absence of a functioning government, the bank stood as the sole supporter of the youth’s dreams. Shortly before the campaign’s offline and online launch, manifestations against the garbage crisis and the old obsolete Lebanese government broke out, making our campaign one of the center pieces of this movement, met with immense praise by our target.

Creative Execution

While Beirut was shaken by youth uprising movements, a massive teaser outdoor-campaign covered Lebanon, with messages of The Makers’ opportunities. The messages intrigued many, as they happened to be highly correlated with the situation on ground. The film launched on Facebook and YouTube, firing up our target, feeling heard in the midst of the country’s turmoil, led by the garbage crisis. Given the need to specifically communicate with the youth, The Makers Campaign was present on Instagram, and also the first bank active on Snapchat. Following the film’s huge success in 48 hours, the campaign launched on TV and radio, revealer panels replaced teasers, mall and larger panels installed. At universities, we proved our stand against the garbage crisis with the youth, by recycling “The Makers” unipoles creating beanbags and other useful items; along with oculus, virtual reality activation, inspiring the youth, with technology. All hosted in The Makers microsite.

The 360 launch of The Makers allowed our client to acquire 4,000 Makers Accounts in 60 days, exceeding the initial goal of 2,000 accounts in 6 months. The campaign generated around 100,000$ of free media, Byblos Bank’s Facebook page witnessed an increase of 143% in fan base, and the film received 700,000 views on Facebook and YouTube alone. The campaign reached up to 3,260,000 people on TV, scoring an estimated incremental reach of 4,000,000 people (92% of the Lebanese), with the campaign integrated on radio, TV, print, outdoor and of course digital and social media.