2018 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

With the absence of a written modern history of Lebanon, the ICRC linked its 50-year-anniversary to the creation of Lebanon’s first Modern History Book, a timeline of images and text solely built on true human stories and real events spanning 50 years of conflict and thousands of victims.

Creative Execution

While there has been no true victor to write 50 years of conflict, the stories of the survivors have been the most valuable and authentic representation of the country’s History. On Instagram and Twitter, we launched the hashtag #StoriesOfHumanity, recognizing and celebrating the shared stories covering 50 years of conflict. Traffic to the hashtag poured in from our film which was broadcast on TV and online triggering our one-month campaign, backed by a simultaneous and fully integrated radio/OOH campaign. Engagement leading to our hashtag laid the groundwork for our big idea, which was the outcome of our integrated journey. #StoriesOfHumanity fueled the creation of Lebanon’s first Modern History book. Digital storytelling through quality engagement was turned into a physical artifact. The book was launched through an official exhibition and made available in all bookstores. ‘Stories of Humanity’ immortalized thousands of heroes in image and text, across 50 years of conflict.

The campaign commemorated 50 years of History solely built on true human stories. People’s unconditional contribution amassed invaluable human stories and led to the creation of the country’s first modern history book. The campaign was acclaimed by the country’s biggest media outlets from lead TV stations to written press, and was recognized by governmental officials as the truest effort to tell our country’s history for the past decades.

The 50-year-anniversary campaign revolved around a single-minded message: Create Lebanon’s first Modern History Book based on true stories of humanity. We launched our campaign message with a simple call to action. Shared stories fuled #StoriesOfHumanity with authentic content combined with the wealth of ICRC stories. Media traction and PR raised awareness on the campaign and helped consolidate traffic towards Instagram and Twitter. The quality of the stories gathered under the hashtag made the creation of the physical book possible. A fully integrated journey intertwining traditional and digital to optimize awareness and engagement throughout the one-month lifespan of the campaign.

Writing a country’s history based on untold human stories meant that our audience’s engagement was crucial to the success of the campaign. Such a type of widespread audience (various age groups across multiple geographies) required a full integration of our core communication message across various reach channels. We opted for a traditional film launch on TV and Online, announcing the campaign message, backed by a supporting outdoor and radio campaign. The objective of this ecosystem was to drive traffic to our Instagram and Twitter pages, our engagement platforms. That is where the audience with our support would fuel our campaign hashtag with untold stories, Those would later on constitute Lebanon’s first physical Modern History book.