2016 Winners & Shortlists

Creative Execution

We wanted to give content they could all equally enjoy; together with Kazem’s team, we wrote a song that focused on all the good moments Iraqis had together and all the great things they can do if they unite. To ensure the song is a product of society we launched a competition asking people to contribute to the writing of the lyrics. To increase participation, we created on-ground activations where we brought Kazem to all Iraqis: in booths people could take selfies with their idol. To ensure massive reach, the campaign was launched on TV, OOH, Radio, and Social Media.

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.

Asiacell is a company with nationwide ambition 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. 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 different cultures we were able to identify common grounds. After research we found that Kadim Al Sahir is loved by all. To create content they could all equally enjoy we asked people to submit lyrics about unity. And together with Kadim’s team, we wrote a song that focuses on all the good moments Iraqis had together inviting people to consider the greatness 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.