2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

We say that technology is making our world smaller and bringing us closer to one another. But is it really? A look around shows that the social scene today is pixels and dots on our screens. Some scholars call it ‘the act of phubbing’ (phone + snubbing). The people of Kuwait were phubbing each other unaware , we didn't even have an Arabic word for it. So we came up with an Arabic name for it and called it Tfabbi. We also invented the Phumb, to help us to stop phubbing others.

Creative Execution

The campaign kicked off with a teaser on social media and 70 thumb shaped cut outs using the word Tfabbi in sentences spread around The Avenues. A day later a team of volunteers were posted on a booth in the center of the mall, answering questions about Tfabbi and giving away free Phumbs to those who pledged to stop. Our plan was to run the campaign for 10 days, but so powerful was the response that the campaign continued on until August 2015. During which we had mimes going up to visitors while in the act of phubbing and demonstrated what phubbing is and gave them phumbs. We ran a PR campaign introducing the word and the act. Social experiments were conducted throughout the year, artists performed street plays and distributed phumbs. The campaign started on the 25th of December 2014 and continued on till End of August.

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

Over 5000 pledges were collected in the first 3 days #letsnotphub had over 800 tags on instagram and twitter in the first 3 days Over 16,000 pledges were collected Recognized by the Ministry of Youth & Education, and a team of performers were awarded for their work in creating awareness about phubbing. The cause was endorsed by the UK Ambassador to Kuwait on social media. Over 100,000 people reached across all mediums- including personal interactions, public events, 127 volunteers worked on the campaign 33% growth in Alnowair followers Alnowair invited by Boubyan Bank, Kuwait University and AlJazeera Airways to conduct campaigns with them.

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

The brief was to address the problem of phubbing (Snubbing others in favor of your phone) in Kuwait. So to inspire people we gave it a name, invented and promoted the Phumbs, a piece of clothing that fit on our thumbs like a sock, since clothed fingers do not work on touchscreens the phumbs made it inconvenient to use our phones while wearing them. We distributed phumbs to those who participated in the campaign against phubbing by taking a pledge and leave their thumb prints on a wall. The pledge was a promise to not use their phones in excess of what they need to and to be more present while in the company of friends and family. This exchange is what makes the campaign relevant to promo and activation, as people had to exchange a promise for a product.