2019 Winners & Shortlists

ABSOLUT THE FACE OF THE EARTH

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

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The Face Of The Earth project brings to life Absolut's vision for a better, more tolerant world. It allows people to not only hear the brand promise, but to feel it, experience it and directly be a part of it.

Background

In the past, Absolut Vodka was loved for its strong presence in the art scene and for the use of its iconic bottle shape as an art canvas. In the past few years, the brand has emerged to following category codes of emphasising party culture and consumption enjoyment, losing its original path to success. The youth aged between 20-30, Absolut’s current audience, is too young to remember it's appealing – which has 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. We thus set out to launch Absolut’s global platform "Create a Better Tomorrow, Tonight" in the UAE, using art and creativity as a weapon for change.

Describe the creative idea.

When nationalism and intolerance were on the rise around the world, Dubai was setting an example of diversity and tolerance, as it is home to literally every nationality on the face of the earth. This lead to the thought- if the earth had a face, what would it look like? To answer this question, we set out an art project that would engage our audience to scan the faces of every nationality on earth within Dubai, to create an artistic rendering of the "Face of the Earth" that will represent the face of diversity. This would be the face that celebrates human unity and reflects diversity. A face that doesn’t belong in a world of inequality and intolerance.

Describe the strategy.

Our key strategic challenge was connecting and engaging with our audience in a dark market where alcohol brand consumption communication is prohibited. Our aim was to reach out to the young millennials that share our vision of a more open world. This being said, we needed to connect with them through a topic that they could all be motivated and driven by. Seeing as this audience is living in Dubai, a city within a nation that has established its very own ministry of tolerance and that later on even announced 2019 to be the year of tolerance, we geared our strategy towards connecting with them by encouraging and celebrating that very tolerance and diversity, which is also in line with with Absolut’s brand ethos. We not only gave them a platform to voice their beliefs but also allowed them to be part of the change firsthand.

Describe the execution

To reach our audience, we reached out to them through our social community platforms and through digital banners. We announced the project with a manifesto film, and continued posting on our channels & running the banners throughout the campaign with a clear call to action asking them to be part of the project by visiting our microsite and scanning their faces. At festivals/events, we engaged with the party-goers with an installation allowing them to have their faces scanned in 3D, adding to the Face of the Earth, while also being taken through the campaign belief. Once the collection of faces ended, we hosted a party to exhibit the face, but more importantly to celebrate optimism, diversity, and art To reach out to the art community, the face was later on used in roadshow in museums bringing to life the brand ethos: art as a weapon for change.

List the results.

This project successfully engaged a wide audience despite communication limitations and succeeded in gathering a face of every nationality. SocialMedia: Objective: reach 40% of our consumption audience despite dark market limitation. Result: we effectively reached 80% of our audience across multiple channels. Instagram: we reached 629,394 with an engagement of 557,280 and total views of 379,323. Facebook: we reached 2,403,395 users, with a total engagement of 37,729 and total media views of 533,456. Microsite/third-party website banners: Third Party Banners: we received over 110,000 clicks with a CTR of 2.34. Microsite: generated over 39,405 users interacting with the face while uploading their own, with 2 minutes in which they interacted with the brand message. Users scanned their faces and left their details with a conversion rate of 4.2%. On-ground/Events: Objective: increase on trade sales by 10% despite tough economic conditions. Result: we achieved an increase of 31%.

Credits

Name Company Role
Mo Alghossein Interesting Times Creative Partner
Jimmy Francis Interesting Times francis@interestingtimes.me
Ali El Sayed Interesting Times Associate Creative Director
Rita Harbie Interesting Times Associate Creative Director
May Ashkar Interesting Times Account Executive
Bahaa Awad Interesting Times Digital Content/Technology Director
Ahmad Hteit Interesting Times Senior Technology Manager
Ashraf Mansour Interesting Times Planning Partner
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