2019 Winners & Shortlists

ABSOLUT CIVIL LOVE

Short List
BrandABSOLUT VODKA
Product/ServiceABSOLUT VODKA
EntrantINTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON
CategoryFast Moving Consumer Goods
Idea Creation INTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON
PR INTERESTING TIMES Beirut, LEBANON

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The 'Civil Love' wedding brings to life Absolut’s vision for a better, more open world. It allowed people not just to hear the brand promise but to feel it and know that the brand is acting upon it. Absolut is a brand that encourages the youth to believe in creativity as a force for progress. So, we discovered a creative solution to bring civil marriage the closest possible to Lebanon.

Background

In the past, Absolut was known for its iconic bottle-oriented communication. However, the brand later began following the category codes of emphasizing party culture and consumption enjoyment, losing its original path to success. The youth aged 20-30, Absolut’s current audience, are too young to remember the appealing history of the brand – which impacted the year-on-year decrease of sales. With the mission of making Absolut relevant again, we needed to return to our roots. However, art by itself will no longer cut it for our audience, as they seek substance and purposeful brands that share their values of a more open world. Our objective was to launch the new Absolut global platform 'Create a better tomorrow, tonight' in Lebanon and engage millennials in order to stop erosion in market share.

Describe the creative idea.

Lebanon is a nation of 4.5 million Lebanese deeply divided by 18 religious sects. These sects were engaged in a 15-year Civil War, and 28 years later, Lebanon is still divided at heart by it. ‘Civil Love: The hope for a unified tomorrow', is a campaign suggesting that the best way to blur the sectarian divisions in Lebanon is for the youth of different faiths to fall in love with one another. But can civil love truly heal divisions in Lebanon if it cannot result in civil marriage? Civil marriage cannot take place on Lebanese soil, but we discovered that it could take place in international waters, only 12 miles from our shores—a boat ride away. So, we set out to bring civil marriage the closest it has ever been to Lebanon in hopes of not just making civil marriage possible, but ending sectarianism.

Describe the strategy.

From civil war, To declaring civil love, Ending in civil marriage. We needed to engage our progressive millennial audience, who share our vision of a more open world and highlight a social issue that was of utmost importance to our youth. The Lebanese youth are surrounded by an environment plagued with a sectarian mentality - a result of a civil war they never witnessed. Sectarianism is integrated into the Lebanese political system and social fabric. Due to parental pressure, the youth are often encouraged to only love and marry someone from their own sect. But the human truth is, no matter where they are from or what their faith is, nothing matters when a Lebanese couple falls in love. Ironically our sectarian political system calls for unity but does not allow civil, inter-religious marriage on Lebanese soil, leading to more separation than unity—something we felt we must address.

Describe the execution

On June 22nd, we kicked off the ‘Civil Love Exhibition’, because art and creativity as a weapon for change is part of Absolut's DNA. In August, we declared ‘Civil Love’ through social, radio, and outdoor to start the conversation. On September 8th, we set sail, moving from civil war, to declaring civil love, and ending with civil marriage. We teased the wedding 3 days before the event on social media only through a 'Save the Date' campaign. We used social posts with statements such as ‘Civil marriage will be making waves on Sept 8’ to fuel conversation and anticipation. On the day of the wedding we invited a few selected influencers and media channels to join us while we broadcasted wedding snippets live on social media.

List the results.

From a year-on-year loss in sales, to an increase of 17.69%. These figures are based on the sales data of July to December 2019 versus those of the same time last year. The overall campaign results: - Reach of 8.1 M - Total engagement (comments and shares) of 160K with 70% coming from earned media. The ‘Civil Love’ wedding results: - Reach of 6.1 M - Total engagement (comments and shares) of 85K with 92% from earned media. The ‘Civil Love’ wedding was featured in top news channels in Lebanon and was the most read news article for weeks. Most importantly, the Interior Minister, parliamentarians, and politicians began taking more serious actions to bring civil marriage to Lebanon. #CivilLove inspired other civil wedding celebrations around Lebanon and even Syria. Currently, ‘Civil Love’ is also in the process of becoming an NGO, fighting to evolve Lebanese marital law.

Credits

Name Company Role
Mo Alghossein Interesting Times Creative Partner
Jimmy Francis Interesting Times francis@interestingtimes.me
Rita Harbie Interesting Times Associate Creative Director
Carl Kaed Interesting Times Art Director
Ashraf Mansour Interesting Times Planning Partner
Wassim Bassil Interesting Times CEO/Founder
Lara Safar Interesting Times Operations Director
Sara Samad Interesting Times Account Manager
Farah Kabbani Interesting Times Account Executive
Bahaa Awad Interesting Times Digital Content/Technology Director
Ali Aladdine Interesting Times Web Developer
Julie Haddad Interesting Times Social Media Director
Vanessa Bou Assi Interesting Times Social Media Executive
Corine Shawi Clandestino Films Film Director
Halim Sabbagh Clandestino Films Film Director
Smarthub Smarthub Production Company
Links
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