2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

Reviving the real estate category, changing it indefinitely, Zahra; proved to Egyptians that big risks, reap bigger results. Gen Z's, the youngest generation, surprisingly has the strongest influence and increasingly gain stronger purchasing power. Our approach was to rely on the data. Instead of talking to the whole family, we tapped into the younger generations. Talking to them through rawest emotions; the euphoria of love, we created a music video with two prestigious celebrities, showcasing the magical fusion of contrasting emotions metaphorically hinting to our residential project. The song flew, and was the soundtrack to every party, wedding, and lovestory.

Background

Memaar Al Morshedy a real estate developer struggling to stand-out amongst the overly crowded communication scene. Although communication was redundant, it was still quiet abundant. Zahra, a real estate project, the-perfect-beach-getaway, the-sandy-summer-house, it's uniqueness relied on many diverse entertainment activities that unleashed each individuals true colors and allowed various contradicting emotions to be experienced. Loud parties and calming beaches, quiet gardens and exciting water-activities, a sports club, clubhouse, and an entertainment area arena all in one place. Zahra wanted to be positioned as an all year-round destination. While they had already launched the first extension the previous year the brand saw low brand awareness and recall. The launch of their second extension was a make it or break it. Objectives: 1) Drive project/brand awareness 2) Drive strong brand recall through Tiktok 3) Sell out second extension by first quarter from launch

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Having launched a project that had exceptional uniqueness, with real estate communication overcrowding consumers, promises were never believed and always passed unnoticed. The challenge was to create bold and out-standing communication that can help reveal the true colors this brand had to offer. Withstand the congested Ramadan commercials as well as the monotonous category. To take a bold approach we wanted to focus on one target audience and get the most out of them. We discovered with extensive research, that Gen Z's and Millennials had undeniably great influence on trends, strong purchasing power and the ability to affect change. While other competitors wasted time with older generations, no one took the time to truly reach the most daring and courageous generations, one that had the strongest power to confidently impact the brands bottom-line. Yet time and again, reaching the youth, proved to ultimately overflow drastically into all other generations.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

It's hard to grasp that the oldest millennial is now 40 years old, and Gen Z's start at 16yo. This gap along with the relentlessly endless new innovations and technologies brought these two digitally-bred generations closer together. With the internet providing huge exposure to the world; these two generations have a lot in common that can challenge behavioral and cultural patterns. With this large age gap and high individualism, we discovered that belonging was difficult. The gens experienced highly fluctuating and mixed feelings and emotions. Our key insight was to bring to light this fusion and confusion, and rather than shy away from it, we celebrate it. Own it and express it to truly reach the target audience that can ultimately influence change. In order to still maintain relevance throughout the generations, we had to focus on one strong feeling; a euphoric one.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Our music video was meant to be an entertainment piece, one that would be felt and not only heard. Speaking through the eyes of the youth and their raw emotions, we used every single element to express this fusion and confusion. Our celebrities were handpicked; male and female, ballet-dancer and actor, elegant and charming, and their reputation highly symbolic to the values of the brand. Both voices resonate strongly, extremely recognizable, and iconic. Both have strong presence and are attractive to the opposite gender. Our song lyrics were a metaphorical poem about love symbolized through elements in the project; beach, sands, star-lit sea, and all the entertainment that is offered. Our visuals complemented the metaphorical elements at hand and expressed raw and innocent love emotions. Our music tune also had fast paced and slow paced verses that helped hype up and soothe down our audience.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

With the previous campaign in mind scoring, Zahra second extension launch saw 80-90% scores across all brand attributes, tapping into a new target audience, and hinging on this success to change the communication scene. Zahra quickly sold out, with only 7 houses left in only a few months. Altogether the music video came to express what our intended audience needed to hear, for the first time leveraging on the power of Tiktok real estate houses worth millions were being sold over Tiktok. Reaching millions of views, above-benchmark results with record high 34.7% qualified leads. Youtube saw 76M views increasing on a daily basis, cost-per-lead decreased 45% during the highest seasonality. On Anghami reaching #1 charts with 68% of users 16-29yo. Although the entertainment piece was meant for Egypt, 9 other Middle-eastern countries pitched in with high percentage views and searches. Tiktok uses Zahra as a case study across the MENA.

Please tell us about how the work challenged / was different from the brands competitors

The real estate scene is repetitive. All communication is centered around; payment plans, down payments, offers, upcoming exhibitions, brand's reputation, and the best "community": all competitors hammer on the offering and the community. This is because these are the main things consumers are looking for; for some reason the real estate scene never takes any risks, never build brand equity, and never emotionally captures their audience. They perceive this as a very logical and decision for the older generations. Our film was unique in the sense that it talked to an untapped market; the youth, metaphorically emphasized the lifestyle and true emotions that unravel while belonging to this community; euphoric state of mind, used unconventional channels to reach consumers; tiktok, and finally provided a lasting entertainment piece; a song, that hammers on a passionate feeling and the name of the brand; Zahra. Inspiring the flower of youth to blossom.