2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Fighting Fit Dubai is an online entertainment show, made in Dubai, for Dubai. Released over a 10-week period, each episode follows the journey of 24 wannabe boxers as they take on the challenge of a lifetime. A truly transformational journey; mentally, physically and emotionally, breaking them down and building them back up to be better and stronger than ever before. With 3 episodes released each week the series was hosted on ESPN with multiple additional films, clips and stills for social content with specific tailed brand sponsored content.

Background

Fighting Fit Dubai Series 3 is an online series dedicated to the transformation of Dubai society. Cast, created and delivered in Dubai, for Dubai; the series follows the incredible transformational journey of 24 individuals. It goes further than that though, not only transforming the individuals who have to train for a grueling hour before and after work every day for 8 weeks, as well as take part in extreme fitness challenges, spew bucket challenges and car pulls, as well as showdowns and ultimately win a chance to fight in the Fight Night Finale. The show also transforms all the crew and those involved with creating the show who quite literally live and breathe it for the 12 weeks of production. And finally, it also demands a transformational approach to delivering a fast turnaround online entertainment show to the Dubai audience.

Describe the creative idea

The show sees hundreds of Dubai residents compete to become part of the final 24 contestants. Starting off with the trials to find our 2 final teams of 8 and a reserve team of 8, with each wannabe contestant put through their paces. Following the selection of the teams, the final 24 go through to the challenges stage, each team competing against the other. With showdowns each week, the contestants live and breathe their training to be the ultimate victory and win their place in the final fight night. With brand sponsorship and integration all the way through, from Fitbit to Adidas as well as bespoke content for social channels.

Describe the strategy

The main strategy for Fighting Fit was to get full brand integration into a truly transformational story, following these incredible people taking on the challenge of a life time, and marry up the right brands that help represent the true nature of the show. Specific brands were approached to take up sponsorship opportunities within the show, brands with an affinity to the content, the transformation journey and with a Dubai audience as their focus.

Describe the execution

Season 3 | 2019 – Following a partnership with the world leader in sports, ESPN, Season 3 was reformatted into a digital campaign that offered up three x 8-15 minute episodes per week over a ten week period; producing over 400 minutes of crafted digital content. The show took over Dubai’s digital space from March to May 2019. We secured partnerships with top quality brands, and produced unique and unrivalled branded content for Adidas | FitBit | Adol | RAM | Fuel Up | Go Sports | Melt Water | Jumeirah Group.

Describe the outcome

29 digital episodes that were consumed by hundreds of thousands of fans, and our multi-platform approach meant fans were provided with a constant stream of content across all digital channels ESPN Campaign • Content takeovers on Boxing and MMA Home Pages | delivering 7.3m impressions • Mass Consumption of exclusive ESPN content | over 200k impressions • Powerful Social Media campaign | over 3m views on all video across social platforms Fighting Fit Digital Performance • 34 films released on YouTube| 300k views • Over 2.9m post reach on FFD Facebook • Over 775k post reach on FFD Instagram Distribution • International distribution of the show, with the rights to Season 3 sold to the Extreme Channel for European broadcast.