2017 Winners & Shortlists

CAREEM 'SLINGSHOT' LAUNCH

Short List
BrandCAREEM
Product/ServiceCAR BOOKING APP
EntrantMISFITS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryUse of Stunts
Idea Creation MISFITS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production MONTAGE PRODUCTIONS Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Campaign

The creative idea was simply to show Careem as the better way to get around. The execution had to be unique in order for it to compete with the millions of content videos that get shared every day across social media. We created an unbranded teaser that was shot in the style of real footage caught on a phone camera so people wouldn't realise it's an ad and share it (we know that people don't generally share ads). This video showed a man being catapulted from one building in Dubai Marina to another but he misses the intended target (net). Panic breaks out and the video cuts. This cliffhanger sparked debate around the world. The reveal part of the ad simply states there is a better way to get around (rather than the idiotic slingshot transport method shown) and then brings in the car booking app product and logo etc.

Creative Execution

We leaked the unbranded teaser to 7 key influencers via whatsapp. They immediately uploaded the video to their social media site asking their followers 'is this real?'. Within a few hours it was picked up by every major news site and blog across the region. Then it started being shared around the world on sites like 9Gag, Unilad, Men's Humour, Herb and even the famous band LMFAO shared it. One facebook user has 15.5 million views on his page of the video. Then it really went crazy, the Dubai government were getting contacted so much by press and people from around the world that the cyber crimes division called and made us reveal the ad and tell the world it was a stunt. By this stage it had been seen in over 150 countries worldwide and every started to share our revealer telling the world that it was Careem.

results It reached over 150 countries worldwide and is still being shared today. Facebook has over 100 million views from multiple sources - this number is still growing, and is impossible to equate properly. Twitter 162M Impressions delivered in 90 days Twitter First View delivered 48M impressions in 3 days with an amazing 3.31M Video Views Cost per Install decreased by 10% while increasing reach by 25% QoQ 90k mentions of the Emoji #Careem YouTube views on the Careem page alone are 4,544,782 but because it has been uploaded from multiple sources the total figure is much more. Instagram we don't know the total figure because it was shared from multiple sources. Google 'careem human slingshot' and you'll see aprrox 2870 results across 18 pages, nearly all for Careem.

This work is relevant for Media Lynx because we had to think different as the normal media channels to reach 11 countries were way out of budget. We devised a stunt to fully utilise the power of social media platforms to get free worldwide media and exposure for our brand launch. By manipulating our campaign to the public in a clever way we made it go viral and in result; the world launched our brand in over 150 countries for the tiny media budget of $2800.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Careem being the digital age pioneers that they are helped us come up with a plan to try and make social media our brand launch pad to give us the exposure and reach across the region that we needed for the tiny budget we had. The only way to reach the millions of people in the 11 countries was through social media. It's the one thing that connects the world every second of everyday. Our target audience was so diverse it ranged in ages and ethnicity, religions and race and from people to organisations, so the only way to talk to all of these at the same time in the same place was of course social media. By making our video go viral on all of the social media platforms our message was delivered around the world and our objective of getting the Careem brand out there was certainly met.

Credits

Name Company Role
Nader Baker Misfits Content Creator
Ross Hardiman Misfits Content Creator
Essa Sheikh Misfits Content Creator
Links
Social Media URL