2017 Winners & Shortlists

THEY'RE JUST COWS

BrandLABANITA
Product/ServiceLABANITA YOGURT FMCG
EntrantFP7/CAI Cairo, EGYPT
CategoryBrand Voice & Strategic Storytelling
Idea Creation FP7/CAI Cairo, EGYPT
Production FP7/CAI Cairo, EGYPT

The Campaign

Our creative idea revolved around the strategy of justifying where our cow mascots had gone and why we needed to bring them back to Labanita bolder and louder than ever. Accordingly, our campaign launched with stories of the two crazy cows taking on different jobs after having left Labanita. From mechanics to pharmacists to government bureau clerks, our gals were a public hazard. Being cows they naturally couldn’t get anything right. Why were people shocked, they were cows after all! The one and only thing they could do was produce the richest, creamiest yogurt in town. That’s why, Labanita had to bring them back.

Execution

For its relaunch, Labanita needed to go big and launch during the month of Ramadan, the “Superbowl” of the Arab world. Labanita was hoping that with ONLY 9% of competitors’ budgets, their mascots could make an impact. The campaign launched with three films, each showing the Labanita COWS goofing off at a job they knew nothing about. Left with pennies to amplify and activate, we decided to create a facebook page for Sawsan and Souad through which we could create content Egyptians wanted to follow. Our strategy was to FORCE people to take note of the content we were producing. The silly, obnoxious cows started to invade celebrities’ and influencers’ pages as “fans” commenting on posts in their usual sense of humor. The silly cows started rumors, gave out wrong information, teased the online celebrities till they got their attention (and the attention of their fans in the millions!!).

Rated as the 4th most effective campaign in Egypt for 2016 by Egyptian marketing publications, despite spending a fraction of the media budgets of the other top 3 advertisers, our campaign won 2 Golds at the Mena Effies. Top online publications rated the campaign as one of the 10 best campaigns in Ramadan. Online celebrities shared our campaign for free and created an online discussion with our cows in front of millions. These conversations with celebrities engaged people all over the country, achieving more than $50,000 of earned media. The facebook page turned into a fan page in one day, gaining thousands of followers without spending! Our gals were such a hit, top entertainment TV program, “ArabWood” featured them on the show for a special interview! Most importantly, sales increased by 70% spilling over onto other Labanita products as well increasing the rest of the portfolio’s sales by 25%.

The Situation

Labanita, the once market leader of the Egyptian dairy market was simply “losing its cool”. With no real reason for the stark drops in share with regards to product, price or distribution, it was apparent the brand was suffering from a typical “outdated” perception among its consumers. Multinational players were entering the Egyptian market and although the Labanita product was ready to compete, in the consumers’ minds, it was lagging behind. A new brand story, a new voice, and a new attitude that would rely heavily on PR was going to be key in bringing our brand back on top.

The Strategy

Our strategy was to bring back the cow mascots that were the only thing that set Labanita apart from the cluttered competition in the dairy market, but the cows couldn’t come back unchanged. To address a young, empowered Egyptian mom and to compete against international brands that were hitting hard on quality standards, the cows had to come back with a new attitude that would be noticed. There was nothing cute, nothing sweet and nothing quite wholesome about our cows. The girls would come back with loud mouths, obnoxious wit and dry humor that the modern family would appreciate. All we had to do was justify where the crazy gals had been all this time and why we needed to bring them back to Labanita.

Credits

Name Company Role
Ahmed Hafez Youness FP7/CAI ECD
Amr Haddad FP7/CAI CD
Abdel Rahman Abou zeid FP7/CAI Senior Copywriter
Sondos Effat FP7/CAI Group Account Director
Raghda El Maghrabi FP7/CAI Account Director
Yasmine Tawfik FP7/CAI Account Executive
Naila Fattouh FP7/CAI Head of Planning
Mostafa Hashish FP7/CAI Planning Supervisor
Hanaa Baghdadi FP7/CAI Digital Unit Director
Walid Hamdy FP7/CAI Digital Manager
Yasmin Shehab FP7/CAI Digital Account Supervisor
Sherif Khaled FP7/CAI Digital Media Executive
Heba Radwan FP7/CAI Head of Film Production Department
Inas Nagy FP7/CAI Producer
Moayad El Shenawy FP7/CAI Producer
Ali Ali N/A Director
Ahmed El Ganainy Magic Beans Executive Producer
Mahmoud Derbala Magic Beans Senior Producer
Ramy Ahmed Magic Beans Line Producer
Mahmoud Ghali Monkeys VFX Supervisor
Youssef Ghali Monkeys VFX Supervisor
Ahmed Ghali Monkeys Animation Supervisor
Karim Mira Lizard Colorist
Amr Rabei Lizard Editor
Hosny Ali The Garage Sound Designer
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