2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

THE 10% OUTDOOR

BrandBAROODY BROS S.A.L
Product/ServiceIDEAL CREAM
EntrantTBWA\RAAD Beirut, LEBANON
CategorySingle Market Campaign
Idea Creation TBWA\RAAD Beirut, LEBANON
Media Placement PIKASSO Beirut, LEBANON

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The Crème Ideal 10% outdoor activation created a groundbreaking use of traditional media, in a way that hasn’t been seen before in Lebanon before. During unprecedented times, Crème Ideal managed to reach more people and connect with a new audience, through an agile and smart use of media space, showing that in some cases we can actually do more with less.

Background

Since 2019, Lebanon has been hit by a devastating nationwide economic crisis. It has impacted all classes, as the local currency, the Lebanese Lira, decreased in value by 400%. This situation resulted in a total stop in media spend for most companies, as they could barely afford to pay their own employees, leaving hundreds of billboards abandoned like blank canvases on the side of the roads. Brief: Crème Ideal, a local beauty brand had to cut its marketing and media budget by 90% and needed to find new creative ways to reach their audience Objective: Spread Crème Ideal’s message that it “cleanses and lightens the skin” across the entire country with minimal budget.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Crème Ideal’s claim is that it cleanses and lightens the skin, but due to the economic situation in the country, it could not spread that message widely with the budget cuts it underwent. At the same time, billboards across the country were left abandoned; blank canvases with nothing for people to see. With their current budget, Crème Ideal could only afford to book 10% of outdoor panels in the country, which would not be even be close to reaching their targets. They needed to come up with a creative way to make the most of their minimal budget. Instead of booking 10% of outdoor panels in the country, Crème Ideal booked 10% of every panel and paid just for that space used. A narrow strip at the bottom of each billboard carried a simple message: “Crème Ideal cleanses and lightens the skin.”

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Before the economic crisis, the local and historical Crème Ideal brand was already facing a relevancy challenge with the younger audience who preferred the L’Oreals of this world. When the sales went down even more due to the financial restraints in the country, the brand needed to appeal to this audience through a creative, groundbreaking (yet cheap) idea. To spread the message that Crème Ideal products cleanse and lighten the skin across the entire country, they took the opportunity of widespread abandoned billboards and booked 10% of them all. The brand took the opportunity to use these blank canvases to re-advertise their famous claim “cleanse and lighten the skin” by using only a small portion of advertising space to get their message across. They paid for only 10% of the actual cost, making the 90% white space do the majority of the work, to get a 100% of people’s attention.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign was spread across 270 outdoor panels throughout the entire country while only using 10% of their regular marketing budget, garnering the attention of everyone walking on the streets or driving, stuck in traffic.

List the results (30% of vote)

By using only a portion of the outdoor panels, Crème Ideal managed to not only save more than $130K in media spending, but gained over 3 million nationwide impressions and managed to increase their sales by 3.2% over the three months following the campaign.

Please tell us how you designed / adapted your campaign for the single country / region / market where it aired.

This campaign was specifically designed for the Lebanese market as Crème Ideal’s concept was based on making the most out of the current Lebanese economic crisis and the plethora of abandoned billboards across the country.

Credits

Name Company Role
Walid Kanaan TBWA\RAAD Chief Creative Officer
Georges Kyrillos TBWA\RAAD Creative Director
Christopher Ghorayeb TBWA\RAAD Associate Creative Director
Jad Chidiac TBWA\RAAD Art Director
Sandy Bou Assy TBWA\RAAD Art Director
Diana Georges TBWA\RAAD Client Servicing
Ricardo Gasparian TBWA\RAAD Planner
Nour Christidi TBWA\RAAD Copywriting
Simon Raffaghello TBWA\RAAD Copywriting