2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

The work is relevant to entertainment because we used the power of music to engage people. Music, namely hip-hop, is the most-followed piece of entertainment in the region. So by creating an original rap song that highlighted every-day excuses in an entertaining way, enhanced by music and lyrics to push the content, we added a new song that stood out from the advertising landscape and created a popular song in its own right.

Background.

The Dubai Fitness Challenge 30x30 is an annual drive to combat UAE’s growing obesity and diabetes health issues. It aims to inspire companies and their employees to engage in better fitness regiments – throughout the day. du – the country’s second largest telecom provider – wanted to go beyond the bland corporate marketing tactics: creating stock-like videos and images of workers pretending to exercise and engage youth to genuinely stop with their “excuses” and adopt a healthier lifestyle. So, du collaborated with one of the region’s most sought-after rappers to compose an original track with a specific rhythm to raise your heartbeat and get you moving, all while dissing all the excuses of why not to exercise.

Describe the creative idea.

The song was scripted, directed and acted to mimic a hip-hop track. Drawing inspiration from 50-Cent’s In da Club, the rapper, Chyno, ran on a treadmill. But as the video progressed, the everyday excuses we use to not train got in the way of his routine. Comedic examples, you’re your grandmother offering you cake, your girlfriend visiting you or food, tried to stop the rapper from continuing his fitness regime. The lyrics explain how he overcomes these challenges. Creatively speaking, we needed to ensure that our idea stood out from all the other Dubai Fitness Challenge-related communication on the market.

Describe the strategy

The UAE has some of the world’s worst future-health-risks stats. Obesity, for example, is double that compared to the global average. Dubai Fitness Challenge was born to raise awareness about general attitude to health. Predominantly a sedentary place – due to heat and car dependence – the activity and fitness of the country is low. Our strategy was based on the fact that people will find any excuse to not stay fit or do exercise. The strategy also found the most common reasons why people are deterred from keeping fit.

Describe the execution

The rap video was played on social media, throughout the month of November (Dubai Fitness Challenge lasts for a month and is celebrated in November). The rap was also split into shorter versions to advertise the song itself. These smaller videos were branded and placed on banners and other such collateral to widen our prospective target audience.

Describe the outcome

Both the song and music video became celebrated across the country with record downloads of the Fitness App exceeding 1,000,000 users and becoming one of the most effective and successful brand content music campaigns from the region to date. Specifically, the song: The UAE’s most successful brand content music video of all time. The video reached 4M people. 1,046,934 views. 2,300,482 Twitter impressions. Despite its length, 55% watched the whole video.