2018 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

As we were watching the London pedestrian attack, one that came after several other terrorism acts in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, KSA and others, there was frustration of such attacks being related to Islam, under the phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greater)… That same phrase we use to soothe aches, to condemn violence, to ease injustice. Music was viewed as the best way to build a cross country collective message, so ZAIN worked with regional Hussein Al Jasmi. The lyrics are poetic,and the music mimics the lyrics. As the lyrics start with the terrorist point of view, the music composition follows the mood, tough, serious, rigid…when Islamic phrases were sung we stopped all instruments as respect to words of God. As the lyrics express the leniency of Islam, the music softens and is emotional…using violins and string instruments…The song ends in an upbeat celebration of love winning

Creative Execution

On the 26th May, using music as a connection to consumers, ZAIN launched its Ramadan TVC on a leading pan regional TV station and online : the song “We will sing love” by regional artist, Hussein al-Jasmi. The same creative was placed on ZAIN's YouTube and Facebook owned assets. The response from consumers to the message was instantaneous. People in the region were polarized in their views, but majority supported and thanked ZAIN for addressing such a sensitive topic & reminding the world that love can and will conquer all. All social media platforms and news/press reports were actively monitored to track sentiment and campaign reach. The campaign's digital delivery was ultimately all organic.

15,830 mentions of ZAIN on Middle East social media in the first 5 days from launch, with consumers across the region polarized but the overall sentiment was positive. With no paid media spend whatsoever, the video has so far achieved over 12 Million accumulated views on YouTube and over 10K likes, over 335K organic views on Facebook and a high engagement rate of 36.7%. Coverage across all major media in the Middle East and International media (including Euronews, CNN, BBC, FOX, reddit, leading newspapers in all continents) – in over 18 languages worldwide

Every year, people across the Middle East look forward to ZAIN's Ramadan commercials - they deliver the true sentiment of Ramadan as well as address issues within the region. The work is beyond a brand commercial. In 2017, ZAIN produced a song with regional favourite - Hussein al Jasmi - the song lyrics are reminiscent of Arabic poetry and lyrically tell of the concerns of the region and provide the opportunity to communicate that united as people if there is love, the world can be a brighter better place.

The topic of terrorism is contentious, and Zain wanted to promote that hate and terrorism has no place in any religion, but rather that all religions of the world including Islam stand for, namely peace, forgiveness, leniency and understanding. Hussein al Jasmi's poetic lyrics with strong, hard hitting visuals would definitely drive this message, but we were conscious that there would be a positive effect, and potentially some criticism. So while the song was placed on television, the number of spots were limited vs perious years and there was no paid digital support, the strategy was clear : let the people of the region speak, if the message resonated with them it would go viral & as expected it did. On launch, within minutes, talkability in the region peaked & within hours it was picked up by regional and international media, so it was clear paid support was not required.