2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Media?

It says the work should demonstrate being inspiring and innovative. It says the creative idea should be enhanced by the use of channel. Well without bragging because after all this is an awards entry this idea does all that. The choice of media is what got everyone talking in the way a print ad of the same idea would not have.

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 was to do something relevant to the brand. That had cultural impact. That would create fame. That would not get us all in jail.

Describe the creative idea/insights

We asked one simple question. Not what would Google do. But what would Deadpool do if he came to Dubai. How would he shake it up. Our research and data gathering was as simple as realizing Ryan Reynolds has 22 million followers. That's a lot of reach to the people we wanted to talk to. If we could do something good enough that he would post, and he has his own image to protect so its not that simple, we would have nailed it amongst the kind of unforgiving comic fans we wee trying to attract.

Describe the strategy.

The target audience was existing superhero fans and fans of Deadpool. We wanted to do something engaging enough that people wanted to see the movie now- not wait for the iTunes release. With our limited budget we knew we had to do something good enough that a partner, in this case Dubai Mall, would do it for free because they too would benefit. A cross-promotional win-win media play- of such a thing exists.

Describe the execution.

Budget was peanuts. We had access to a suit but nothing else. No access to the star or at the time even footage. $600 was spent making a new suit that fit. Dubai Mall was convinced to participate for free and install it using their in-house team knowing that they too would benefit from the fame. And they did. Large scale ambient in the biggest Mall in the world. One million visitors a week. Up for two weeks but the aim was always doing something that is known in our circles as Instagram worthy. Shareable content that laughing is aged to go viral but actually did.

List the results.

The brief was to create enough cultural impact that Reynolds himself would post it. That was achieved and his post is the most liked Dubai related post of all time with 1.8 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. Enough impact for Apple from Cupertino to send us a congrats message. Figures from Meltwater: 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