2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

In 2014, the Launch of Stop the Shop – an anti-corruption NGO in Lebanon – was a great success. It certainly managed to rally the young energetic Lebanese dreaming of a better future for their country around the cause of corruption. For the NGO’s second year, our aim was to reach a wider audience. We wanted to create a piece of content that would touch the hearts of the masses.

Creative Execution

2015 was the year corruption stopped being an abstract concept and started really affecting the lives of all Lebanese: as a result of corrupt policies, the waste management plan of the government turned out to be a real scam and, from a day to another, garbage stopped being collected and started filling the streets of the country. People had enough! They flooded the streets chanting slogans against the government. But soon, politicians interfered and joined the protest with new slogans. The real purpose of the demonstration was starting to be diverted to varied political agendas. Stop the Shop wanted to bring the conversation back to corruption before the movement loses its momentum. We partnered with the independent activist artist, Tania Saleh, known for her integrity and engagement, used footage from the demonstrations and created a song and its video clip in just a few hours.

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

Instantly, the song was widely shared online by demonstrators, influencers, artists and the public at large, confirming their endorsement to Stop the Shop’s cause, totaling over 1 Million impressions and garnering more than 300.000 views and 2,223 shares. On the ground: the song was played at every meeting occasion becoming the anthem of the movement. The song even made it to the demonstrations that expat Lebanese were holding in cities all over the world. Mainstream media picked it up: Tania Saleh and Stop the Shop’s team were invited to the top shows. The two biggest channels in the country, started playing the song 20-40 times a day including the live coverage of the demonstrations where the song was playing in the background during the entire period of the protests. Coverage reached the phenomenal figure of $ 8,578,136.00 earned media, focusing the conversation on the real issue – corruption.

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

When we realized the protest movements that were happening in the street of Lebanon because of the garbage crisis needed help in refocusing the cause of the demonstrations to corruption, we decided to use a popular tool among demonstrators: an anthem. A song helps generate strong feelings and gather people behind a cause. The song and video clip that were created by Stop the Shop during the 2015 garbage protests in Lebanon very quickly became a driving force for the protesters, taking back the street protest away from the grasp of the corrupt political class and focusing the movement once again against their corrupt policies.