2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

We wanted to create an album launch that would for the first time united Mashrou’Leila’s Arab and non-Arab fans and reach an audience beyond their typical fan-base. Our objectives were to reach an audience wider than their biggest previous concert performances and to place the album at the top of social conversations. We identified the insight that mainstream Middle-Eastern society rejects people that express their freedom, explore their identities, and flaunt their sexuality. Daytime slips us into repressed and lesser versions of ourselves but when the night takes over so do our basic and truer instincts. In their album, Mashrou’Leila bring forward the decadence of the night and all the unseen intricacies that lurk in the darkness, we wanted to create a new creed “The cult of the night” making all the followers Sons and Daughters of the Night.

The Campaign

“Ibn el Leil” or “Son of the Night” is the band’s fourth album, it is a tipping point in their musical career launching the band well beyond regional forums. The album brings forward their love of the night and all the decadence that lurks in the darkness. Despite the songs being in Arabic, the band has acquired an international fan-base. With an album based on a universal experience, the night, they wanted to go beyond the music and create a unifying experience.

Creative Execution

A deity with a hyena head became the symbol and the album art became the cult kit that reveals the rituals and chants of this cult. The cult needed its first members; 15 Lebanese Artists participated in creating visuals for the cult’s first ceremony, the album launch concert at the Barbican, London. The artists interpreted the night in their own way by submitting provocative raw footage of the night that would serve as the visual experience during the band’s performance. The concert was broadcasted live on satellite TV in the entire middle east and online In parallel, we launched a party at Beirut’s infamous Behind the Green Door to initiate the soon-to-be followers to the cult. At the peak of the concert, the live transmission was hijacked by this party where a dancer posing as the deity of the night made an appearance, his face shielded by a Hyena mask.

• Ranked #1 album on iTunes MENA (beating Adele’s Album release) • #1 Album at Virgin Megastores MENA • First Arab Pop band to be ranked #13 on US Billboard Charts • 140k experienced the London Barbican Launch Concert from Lebanon, an audience 28x larger than their biggest Beirut concert • Over 1Million experienced, live, the Barbican Launch Concert in the world, an audience 66x larger than their biggest concert ever.