2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR Lynx?

We were contracted to manage an eight-week PR and social media campaign for the first-ever Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in Dubai. Through carefully curated and crafted content and message placement, the campaign successfully evoked the wider Big Bad Wolf Books ethos of promoting a culture of reading through brand-new, affordable books to foster creative thinking to improve literacy among future generations.

Background

Our primary objectives were: • Raise awareness of the event • Highlight organisers working with government and semi-government stakeholders • Drive attendance to the event Audiences were broad: book lovers, occasional readers, students and anyone mildly curious about reading in the UAE and GCC. While multiple news hooks were available to drive PR and social media efforts, two hooks became central pillars of the campaign: • 3 million brand-new English language books across all genres, on sale with an astonishing 50% to 80% off retail prices. • The event’s Dubai debut would mirror its Asian predecessors in being open for 24 hours a day for 11 consecutive days – a completely new concept in the Middle East.

Describe the creative idea.

We worked closely with Big Bad Wolf Books to map out a fully-integrated campaign plan covering all aspects of communications – from laying out an initial master creative design for use across the full Marketing & Communications campaign, conceptualising dedicated press events driven by traditional and digital PR, as well as calendarising the full consumer-facing social media work. To drive pre-event share of voice and media penetration, a VIP & Media day was organised on the 17th of October, one day before the event opened. The VIP & Media day gave early access to more than 3,000 people who participated in a social media campaign, activated through the month of September, as well as friends and family of the rganisers and stakeholders.

Describe the strategy.

To establish brand equity, we managed initial awareness-building exercises included influencer outreach on social media, where micro-influencers were identified, engaged with and informed about the upcoming sale. On the PR front, a press conference was organised one month before the event to inform and engage the local media about the sale. The press conference was an engaging activity with the partners and organisers; spokespeople from the sale were interviewed and features were placed with selected media outlets ahead of the sale. To get the media excited about the VIP day and the sale that followed, a “Trolley Dash” was organised, wherein media representatives from print and broadcast media were invited to take part in a one-off game. The winner was the media representative who filled their shopping trolley with books from various sections of the sale and of a pre-determined value in the shortest amount of time.

Describe the execution.

Through the course of the 11-day sale, social media content was generated around the clock by our team onsite, encouraging people to engage with us and step into the sale even during the early hours of the morning. Quick micro contests were organised onsite during slow hours to increase footfall and bring more people to grab books before they sold out. With jam-packed weekends and a bustling sale arena, news about the sale began spreading organically, with queries pouring in from other emirates and neighbouring GCC countries. The sale attracted 150,000 book lovers over 255 hours – a 50,000 jump on forecasted attendance.

List the results.

PR: - 377 total clippings with coverage in all major dailies (print and online) including The National, Gulf News, Khaleej Times, Al Khaleej, Al Bayan, Emarat Al Youm and broadcast channels such as Reuters TV, Dubai TV, Dubai Eye, Al Arabiya etc. - The sale was featured internationally by the New York Times - Total circulation of 556,149,614; AD value of US$ 1,352,710 and PR value of US$ 4,058,130 Social: - The two-month social media campaign generated 23.3 million impressions across Facebook and Instagram. - 14.9 million people reached, across platforms. The campaign reached audiences across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, India and Pakistan. - 1.2 million video views on Facebook and Instagram. - 133,259 engagements were received on Facebook and Instagram in 2 months. - The Instagram page maintained an engagement rate of 3.1% to 4.51% throughout campaign.