2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Deadpool 2 is an R-rated movie. The challenge was to launch the movie, being true to its spirit, its naughtiness and thus keeping credibility with loyal fans without offending any local sensibilities. This is after all the Middle-East. The brief and objective was simple. Do something good enough that Ryan Reynolds would post it out to his 22 million followers. Do something that creates a cultural impact and gets everyone talking. Don't get us all in jail.

Describe the creative idea.

What's the kind of thing Deadpool would do if he came to Dubai to shake things up >

Describe the strategy.

The strategy was simple. Do something that was worthy of Deadpool that would create some noise. Do something good enough that Ryan Reynolds would share. Do something with a suit, the only element of the film we had.We didn't have access to the star or any footage at the time. We had nothing. Not even much money. Target audience was superhero movie fans but especially existing fans of Deadpool. Get them excited enough to see the movie at the cinema rather than wait for it on on iTunes. You've heard it before but we had to do something Instagram worthy.

Describe the execution.

After getting approval to fit the suit on an iconic diver at Dubai Mall waterfall it soon became clear that the suit would not fit. The statues are in fact 7 foot tall. So with our limited budget we convinced a local tailor to make an original Deadpool suit. He had not heard of Deadpool but he rose to the challenge. Designing the suit to be a replica of the original with the same texture, look and feel. The same detailing including the swords. In fact crafting a suit good enough to get the approval of 20th Century Fox. It was a labour of love worthy of the movie.

List the results.

The most liked Dubai related post of all time with 1.3 million likes. It was shared by many other media outlets and individuals as well as generating huge traffic to the mall. It had genuine cultural impact, not pretend for awards cultural impact. For a while it was the trending conversation. It lifted the whole of Dubai as it felt like Dubai could also do cool stuff not just glitzy stuff. The box office was higher than predicted- enough for an extended run and enough to have a week 2 that was very little off week 1 - which is massive in the movie world. It crushed the results. 36.2 million social media reach 373 related posts. 100%positive sentiment. 1.2million likes The most liked Dubai related post ever. 576K reach in the UAE from publications. 787% ROI on media. Knocked Avengers from No 1. Spot Source: Meltwater