2016 Winners & Shortlists

AL TAWASOL

BrandTOUCH
Product/ServiceAL TAWASOL LINE
EntrantMINDSHARE MENA Dubai , UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryProduct Launch/ Re-Launch / Shopper Marketing
Advertising Agency J. WALTER THOMPSON BEIRUT, LEBANON
Media Agency MINDSHARE LEBANON Beirut, LEBANON
Entrant Company MINDSHARE MENA Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Brief

Nearly 2 million refugees have fled to Lebanon from violence in Syria. For displaced populations, staying connected to relatives in Syria has grown increasingly difficult and expensive, leaving many to resort to traveling up and down Lebanon’s borders to try to find a Syrian mobile signal and check on the status of their loved ones. touch launched the Al Tawasol line, their primary objective was to provide 10,000 SIM cards with a bundle of minutes, SMS, data and international calls to Syria at very low rates.

Creative Execution

Our partnership with NGOs allowed us to access the camps, where a fleet of engaging promoters with the Syrian residents, provided flyers with useful information about the special package. We created five branded mobile trucks for the Touch Syrian Line, which followed a specially-designed route in key areas such as the rural Bekaa region. We also built a highly-targeted mix of 4x3 displays with static unipoles around the camps to support the activation.

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

Within a period of one month, we managed to connect with over 50,000 refugees with their families. Additionally, we only spent 50% of our initial budget on the campaign and exceeded our objective by 400%. Our approach and NGO collaboration allowed us to use very precise targeting, which led to 50% saving in budget and 5 times greater than the target. Our ultimate accomplishment was the ability to connect with over 50,000 Syrian refugees to their loved ones back home, making their displacement just a little more bearable.

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

Since the Al Tawasol line's main target were Syrian refugees that were mainly concentrated in camps, running a mass media campaign wouldn't have helped us reach our audience. Instead we opted for very targeted outdoor placements and we approached NGOs to combine Touch’s package with their aid packages, presenting mobile data as a basic necessity just like food, water, and shelter. We sent out promotional trucks to these areas and specialized promoters explained the packages 1 on 1 to our target.

Credits

Name Company Role
Joyce Tawil Mindshare Mena Senior Director - Head of Trading
Maya Ghanem Mindshare Mena Director - Exchange
Raphael Elias Mindshare Mena Senior Executive - Trading
Sally Younes Mindshare Mena Senior Executive - Trading
Caroline Houbeiche Mindshare Mena Executive - Exchange