2022 Winners & Shortlists

CHRISTMAS WILDFIRE

BrandMALL OF THE EMIRATES
Product/ServiceMALL OF THE EMIRATES
EntrantMULLENLOWE MENA Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryTravel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Idea Creation MULLENLOWE MENA Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR MARKETTIERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production POWER INTERACTIVE FZ LLC Dubai Production City, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production 2 POWER INTERACTIVE FZ LLC Dubai Production City, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production 3 PUNCH AUDIO São Paulo, BRAZIL

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

This campaign used an immersive, special-build Christmas Tree to transform a traditional festive season ceremony that attracted thousands of mall visitors into an educational and striking moment. The activation figuratively set a Christmas Tree on fire to raise awareness about climate change and get people in the Middle East to change their ways. And only by taking a classic, loved festive symbol could we really make the impact we needed. Using an experience-led spectacle we subverted our classic Christmas Tree lightning and delivered on a vertical which is super important to the brand: sustainability.

Background

Wildfires are more destructive than ever. And in 20 years, scientists predict they’ll be six times larger. The Middle East is a region known for its fuel-based economy and almost inexistent sustainable culture. So, we decided to do something to get people to care about climate change and wildfires when it’s not really part of the region’s agenda.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To get people to care about wildfires and climate change, we subverted one of the season’s most traditional ceremonies and burnt the one tree people love to see: the Christmas Tree. During our traditional tree lighting ceremony, Mall of the Emirates stunned mall visitors with a digital carbon-neutral tree, which lit beautifully and, all of a sudden, burnt to ashes. The lighting ceremony was treated like a show that used storytelling, 4D audio and a large-scale, special-built, carbon-neutral tree to deliver a powerful message.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The United Arab Emirates (and Middle Eastern region) has a fossil-fuel-based economy and ranks amongst the top 20 countries in terms of fuel usage and consumption. And since climate change is destroying our planet and leading to a massive increase in occurrence and intensity of wildfires, we decided to use a classic Christmas symbol to drive a powerful message and spur a reaction from people. As a leader in sustainability, Mall of the Emirates is continuously looking for ways to reduce its impact on the environment. It’s reduced water usage, energy consumption and increased recycling rates over the years so creating an activation like this one was a given for the brand.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Our carbon-neutral Christmas Tree was 8 meters high and put together 500+ reused LED screens to create a fully immersive experience that shocked people and invited them to pledge to reduce their impact on the environment. For every pledge made, the Mall planted a tree on participants’ behalf, making a real difference to the planet. The Christmas Wildfire was built 2 weeks before Christmas and unveiled to the public in a huge great lighting ceremony that brought the press, influencers and authorities such as the Sustainability Minister of the UAE together.

List the results (30% of vote)

The results were very impressive and exceeded our expectations, helping the brand reach its objectives. The Christmas Wildfire was watched by more than 2.2M people. 23,000 of them pledged to a more sustainable life and we’re currently planting 23,000 trees on their behalf, making a real difference to the planet. The online video and the media coverage helped us to achieve even more impactful results with 120M impressions and $1,800,000 in earned media. And even more, according to Google Trends 2021, “Wildfire” Google searches increased 27% during the period of the campaign, proving that the idea helped to bring climate change back to the conversation in a month when no one is particularly talking about that.

Credits

Name Company Role
Mounir Harfouche MullenLowe MENA CEO / CCO
Paul Banham MullenLowe MENA Executive Creative Director
Eduardo Castello Branco MullenLowe MENA Creative Director / Copywriter
Rodrigo Rocha MullenLowe MENA Copywriter
Caio Gandolfi MullenLowe MENA Art Director
Marcio Rodrigues MullenLowe MENA Motion Graphics Specialist / Video Editor
Fabio Koriyama MullenLowe MENA Art Director
Raya Wakim MullenLowe MENA Account Director
Uzo Uzoigwe Power Interactive Creative Lead - Production/Content Design/Animation
Deep Dwivedi Power Interactive Head of Operations
Mahmoud Abou-Khaled Power Interactive Project Manager
Cristiano Pinheiro Punch Audio Creative Partner - Music Production