2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Egyptians, when facing the issue of Dandruff, reach for more or less the same solutions. Vinegar if they’re going the natural route or Head & Shoulders or Clear if they’re looking for something that won’t leave them smelling like a salad.  Now, Clear from Unilever, the market leader when it comes to anti-dandruff shampoos, but despite Clear’s best attempts, Head & Shoulders remains the nation’s favoured brand due its long-standing heritage in the Egyptian market. While Clear was winning when it comes to share-of-wallet, it was losing out on share-of-heart. And there was a threat with constant erosion of brand favourability vs. Head & Shoulders, this would impact share-of-wallet too. To build and strengthen its connection to the Egyptian male, Clear has capitalized on one of the two biggest passion point among Egyptians: Football (music being the other).

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Clear's global brand ambassador, for the past decade, has been none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. And they’ve used Ronaldo in global ads adapted for Egypt, dubbed in Arabic. To be more relevant to Egyptians, Clear, a global brand, needed to bring its brand purpose of ‘Dare to shine’ to life. It needed to bring it to life by not thinking about how it’d work in Egypt, but how it could work to benefit Egyptians. This meant that Clear needed to touch the heart of its local consumer; the man who - while Cristiano competed in the world’s biggest stadiums - was playing football with his friends on the streets. To strengthen Clear’s brand image among these Egyptians, the brand needed to become a brand that contributed to local communities.  Clear needed to act, not just create ads featuring Ronaldo.  An opportunity lay in the failure of the national team…

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

With the failure of the national team in the World Cup and in African Cup of Nations, Egyptians needed something to latch onto, something that could reignite their bruised football pride and give them hope in reclaiming their former glory. While Egyptian society passionately celebrated its famous football stars, and followed them, even in defeat, it ignored the skilled football talents, unrecognized on its many streets.  “My dream is to become a football player, but I feel there is no opportunity for people like me, nor will there ever be”, says one street child. Talented homeless and street children who could, one day, be the country’s future stars, were given no respect nor recognition, often being wrongly perceived to be futile juveniles or junkies.  Our opportunity lay in the streets with the stars on the streets across Egypt....

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

To win love and respect for Clear vs. simply selling a shampoo off shelves, we launched a long-term initiative, Abtal El Shawarea’ (The Stars on the Streets) that'd help Clear contribute to local community across Egypt. We identified, train and develop football talents among street children across Egypt. This was something only a big brand like Unilever’s Clear could launch.  When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. And we choose to change the perception by giving the children a platform to show the unsung football heroes Egypt was missing out on. Shining the light on the unseen talents of homeless children was the perfect way to bring the purpose of ‘Dare to Shine’ to life, by enabling those children to shine. With Egypt’s first-ever football platform for homeless and street children, Clear was playing an additive role in the community, earning respect.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

The media attention took the program to even greater heights. Popular football sites covered their progress, while on TV, talk shows and sports shows clamored to feature the victorious team. They were finally getting the star treatment and recognition they deserved. As the story of the children’s journey to the global stage and their amazing progress became a story of national pride, football fans across Egypt found new heroes to support. We reached 31% of Egypt with the platform and earned 1.1 million USD in earned media value. This act of goodness made good business sense for Clear and Unilever too, as it directly impacted key brand attributes: Brand recall: +42% vs. prior year. Brand consideration: +22% vs. prior year; Head & Shoulders declined. Brand favourability: +31% vs. prior year; Head & Shoulders declined. But most importantly, we uncovered and signed on 388 football stars from the streets, and counting.