2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Kurds and Arabs have very different cultures but we were able to identify common grounds. Kadim Al Sahir a singer that is loved by all and accepted by both parties. We wanted to give the people of Iraq content that would open communication channels, and so, we launched an online activation inviting people to send lyrics for a song about unity and together with Kadim’s team, we chose and 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.

Creative Execution

We wanted to give content they all equally enjoy. To ensure the song is a product of society we first launched a competition asking people to contribute to the writing of the lyrics. Then, 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 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. The campaign rolled out through various touch points including outdoor, TV, press and online. 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 because people were part of the message.

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

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. We managed to bring to life our promise of bringing people together. Together as Iraqis, rather than Kurds and Arabs.

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

This entire campaign was designed to open a conversation between the people of Iraq. At the very beginning we asked people to share their versions of lyrics for Iraq's unity and once the clip was done, a live conversation was open all over the country.