2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

CAGED

BrandTAJAWAL
Product/ServiceTAJAWAL
EntrantDÈJÁVU Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryFiction & Non-Fiction Films up to 5 minutes
Idea Creation OMAR HILAL CREATIVE Maadi, EGYPT
Production DÈJÁVU Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Additional Company PLATIGE IMAGE Warsaw, POLAND

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

In today's day and age, it is not about a brand or a product story but stories that connect with the audience. If the story or visual is striking and surprising, the brand automatically gains from the dissonance. Keeping this in mind, in order to communicate about a new travel player in the market, we went with the unusual approach of representing the mundane existence of a Dubai expat through the travails of a Mandrill - a metaphor of the caged 'employee'.

Background

Tajawal is a fresh take on travel for the Middle East. It caters to the diverse needs of travellers from the UAE and beyond by offering competitively-priced flights on over 450 airlines, more than 1.5 million hotels all around the world, complete holiday package solutions for top destination and state-of-the-art mobile application for an effortless booking experience. But in a competitive market with established players screaming offers and discounted prices, Tajawal needed to build its brand by breaking through the clutter and present a different point of view on traveling.

Describe the creative idea

Emirates constitute 20% of Dubai’s population. 80% are expats whose lives revolve around nothing but work. Though they have homes, work is where they live. Trapped in 2x2 plexiglass cubicles, chained to desks, their existence is no different than that of an animal, and their zest for life withers into a default existence. This led us to a Mandrill, a metaphor for a regular guy living in Dubai, in his life over a period of time seen at work, home, out with friends, out on dates, bowling, doing things people do but with the exception that he is burnt out and deflated. Shot in a particular style so that his surroundings act as a cage, we follow his story as he fakes a smile all along, even singing occasionally when all he really wants to do is cry and get out. Until Tajawal comes to his rescue.

Describe the strategy

We asked ourselves why do we travel in the first place? This led to us to deep dive and understand the mindset that pushes us all to travel, especially in a competitive work environment like Dubai where work life balance is difficult to achieve. We zeroed in on a set of people that everybody can easily identify with - the workaholics who have trouble leaving their job behind, stuck in their modern day cages - their cubicles, and wanting to ‘break out’. To dramatise this point, we chose an interesting visual representation of the modern day office slave - a Mandrill, an animal with the perfect blend of familiarity, wilderness and humour.

Describe the execution

• YouTube: • Video campaigns and Bumper ads: Targeted towards our target audience through custom content that they consume. (Sports, Music, Travel, Series, etc) • Facebook: • Video campaign: Targeted towards our target audience through custom content that they consume. (Sports, Music, Travel, Series, etc). • Instagram: • Video campaigns: 10second ads that lead to watch the full video (instream). Laser targeted across the age group and gender we are after. • Snapchat: • Video campaigns: 10second ads that lead to watch the full video (instream). Laser targeted across the age group and gender we are after.

Describe the outcome

It will go live on 28th of Feb. So we have no results at this point in time.

Credits

Name Company Role
Omar Hilal Dejavu Creative
Manasvi Gosalia Dejavu Executive Producer
Kavya Iyer Dejavu Producer
Pratixa Kanojia Dejavu Head of Production
Mohamed Qanati Tajawal Head of brand
Laura Tomaszewski Tajawal Brand Manager
Yasmin Lopez Tajawal Client Producer
Dina Ayoub Tajawal Assistant Brand Manager
Serge Teloun Dejavu Director Of Photography
Georges Cassab Dejavu First Assistant Director
Charbel Naimeh Dejavu Art Director
Kurt Barretto Dejavu Production Manager
Aurimas Juodiskis Dejavu Make up
Christina Choie Dejavu Wardrobe
Chris Harker Dejavu Key Grip
Karsten Loffler Dejavu Gaffer
Mary Bou Akl Dejavu Post Production
Neda Ahmed Dejavu Offline editor
Links
Video URL