2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The on-going political instability in Iraq, has been increasing the cultural and social divide between the Arab and Kurd communities. As a result, consumers don’t necessarily choose operators based on how good they are but rather whether or not they are from the Kurdish or the Arab part of the country. Asiacell is a company with a nationwide ambition that wanted to reinforce its presence in its competitors’ strongholds and start being seen as the operator of all the Iraqis by bringing people together and bridging gaps. Therefore, we wanted Asiacell to be the champion of Iraq’s unity by changing the conversation from what makes Iraqis different to what unites them. While Kurds and Arabs have very different cultures we were able to identify common grounds between them. After extensive research we found out that Kadim Al Sahir is a singer that is loved by all. A regional superstar in the Arab region who comes from Iraq and overcomes national divisions and cultural turmoil. We wanted to give Iraqis content they could all equally enjoy and so, we launched an online activation asking people to submit lyrics about unity, and together with Kadim’s team, and from peoples' words, we wrote a song that focuses on all the good moments Iraqis had together and that invited people to consider all the great things they can still do if they unite. The strategy was to rekindle people’s sense of unity through music, dance and celebration by opening doors of communication. The campaign rolled out across the nation through various touch points including outdoor, TV, press and online. The impact of the campaign that was truly felt online. People had no restrictions or fears to hold them back. The unthinkable unity on-ground truly happened online.

Online, our campaign reached over 14 million Iraqis from both communities of which almost 500,000 positively reacted, commented and shared. What is even more remarkable for an Iraqi campaign is that we managed to equally reach both communities; 41% of Kurds (2,545,177 out of 6,500,00) as well as 31% of Arabs (11,152.800 out of 33,400,000). The emotional and entertainment value of our content also increased the performance of the Asiacell playlist on Anghami (regional leading music streaming platform) with almost 3 million stream, 44% more than competitors' playlists with an average time of 40 minutes spent on our playlist. However, the impact of the campaign that was truly felt online. People had no restrictions or fears to hold them back. The unthinkable unity on-ground was happening online.