2022 Winners & Shortlists

LOVE LOCAL SPACE FOR RENT

BrandMETA
Product/ServiceMETA SMBS PLATFORM
EntrantTBWA\RAAD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryCommunity Management
Idea Creation TBWA\RAAD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production 1505 STUDIO Fujairah, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Meta, with Facebook and Instagram often receives negative press for what is seen as the shallow side of social media. With the aim of making Meta a key partner of local SMBs in the region, Space for Rent capitalised on the native elements of its platforms to help a cause - cover photos, posts and stories, in the service of local communities across the middle east. The cause turned into a movement everyone could get behind, earning the MENA region more PR coverage than all other regions where similar campaigns ran, thus helped put more spotlight on more local businesses.

Background

Being a small business owner has always been hard. It’s been even harder for the past two years when streets emptied, and people became more dependent on online purchases. In the Middle East, family businesses are a staple of every street and neighbourhood, run by and for the residents of those areas. Simply put, they are the heartbeat of our communities. But with the pandemic causing a global recession, small businesses, often ill-equipped to face a rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape, were going out of business. Simply by shopping online, people were inadvertently shifting their spending to giant corporations, turning SMB to an endangered species. Meta saw a window to help. The brand wants to be a key partner for SMBs and was keen on encouraging people and their communities to support their local shops. How could the global giant Meta support local shops from MENA regions?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

SMBs have personal relationships with their customers. They know their names, what they want and exactly how they want it. Customers become part of the family and feel like they have a personal stake in that business, pushing everyone they know to experience the places they love. When competitors hold all the cards and have all the money and advertising space, what is there left for SMBs? They have something much more powerful: people’s love. We had to find a way to make this love louder, more vocal and thus more useful for the businesses that communities wanted to support. We created “Space for Rent”, a movement empowering people to become a living ad space for their favorite SMBs by using their most powerful asset: their social profiles. All they had to do: turn their cover photos and social profiles into an advertising space for their favorite local business.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Economic turmoil is unequal – especially when it comes to eCommerce. Giants like Amazon, Carrefour, Ebay and others can spend on online advertising as they please, saturating our search results and our feeds. SMBs are nowhere as lucky. For them, getting more customers is an uphill battle. A google search is enough proof: big companies come first, leaving smaller businesses to the later pages no one ever bothers clicking on. We knew people loved the stores in their community, but our challenge was much bigger: SMBs were not just competing among each other, they faced a David vs. Goliath situation, facing major companies on an uneven playing field. These businesses heavily rely on footfall to generate sales. And outside of their regulars, their main source of new business was passers-by seeing the store sign… during a pandemic, this was a lost cause. We had to rally everyone to our cause.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The movement was kicked off with an online film celebrating real relationships between people and the local SMBs in their communities showing how in these relationships, it’s more than business, it’s personal. Real real stories and real people were used instead of actors to further drive the campaign’s authenticity. The film encouraged everyone on Facebook and Instagram to join the movement and toolkits made it easier for people to participate. Famous actors, chefs, and influencers rallied to our cause (without any compensation): Mohamed Henedy, Faisal al Saif, Kris Fade and many others across the region joined the movement, donating their profiles to share posts and stories about their beloved SMBs and asking their followers to share their favourites as well. Faced with all this love and support, the SMB themselves showed their thanks and appreciation with videos, notes and packages to those that stood by them.

List the results (30% of vote)

What started small turned into a movement. It became the talk of the region, with 100+ articles covering it all the way from Tunisia to the UAE, with a worth of $1,217,125 in earned PR value. Over 60% of all the articles used the campaign hashtag in the headline helping spread our movement! What’s more, the MENA region received the highest number of press coverage among all global regions in which similar campaigns aired, speaking to the impact the movement had on communities across the region. On Facebook and Instagram, the campaign received over 245,000 total interactions – and that’s just from verified accounts, public accounts and manually tracked pages, making total interaction much higher. The videos and reels shared by our partner content creators highlighting some of their favourite local businesses have been viewed at least 2.3 million times. All this taking place in French, English and Arabic across the entire region! For Meta – the outcome was strong too – with their role as a key partner to SMBs being mentioned in 100% of the articles. And with zero negative coverage as well! Here’s to using social media for good by amplifying our love and support!

Credits

Name Company Role
Walid Kanaan TBWA\RAAD Chief Creative Officer
Joe Lahham TBWA\RAAD Managing Director
Jennifer Fischer TBWA\RAAD Chief Innovation Officer
Krix Berberian TBWA\RAAD Regional Creative Director
Bruno Bomediano TBWA\RAAD Executive Creative Director
Rijin Kunnath TBWA\RAAD Design
Felipe Menezes TBWA\RAAD Art Director
Mohammad Alkawas TBWA\RAAD Design
Omar El Dehneh TBWA\RAAD Content Creator
Ahmed Abo Rady TBWA\RAAD Digital Content Creator
Adnan Ahmed TBWA\RAAD Copywriter
Ramez Rahal TBWA\RAAD Strategy
Rifaat Fakih TBWA\RAAD Strategy
Sabine Haddad TBWA\RAAD Copywriter
Majdy Alawna TBWA\RAAD Arabic Copy
Lucie Momdijan TBWA\RAAD Art Director
Rama Zarafili TBWA\RAAD Account Director
Camilo Rojas TBWA\RAAD Motion Design
Zeina Abuzaid TBWA\RAAD Motion Design
Zeina Safa TBWA\RAAD Arabic Copy
Marianne Sargi TBWA\RAAD Head of Production
Nelly Chahwan TBWA\RAAD Producer
Diana Georges TBWA\RAAD Client Servicing Support
Romy Abdelnour TBWA\RAAD PR & Communications
Georges Ghattas TBWA\RAAD Client Servicing Support
Mike Thomas TBWA\RAAD Finalizer
Steve Guiragossian TBWA\RAAD Finalizer
Girish Sapalya TBWA\RAAD Retoucher
Ezzat Habra TBWA\RAAD Traffic
Naveen Madurakariyan TBWA\RAAD Traffic
Ahmed Younis - Fizo Meta Head of Creative Shop
Leen Fakhreddin Meta Creative Agency Partner
Farah Nami Meta Communications Manager
Samer Fleihan 1505 Studio Executive Producer
Ayasylla Ghosn 1505 Studio Producer
Pauline Maroun 1505 Studio DP
Pierre Baz 1505 Studio Sound
Layane El Hajjar 1505 Studio Production Manager:
Gabriel Haddad 1505 Studio Editor
Chrystel Elias Lucid Post Colorist
Harry Hedeshian harryhedeshian.com Music Composer
Rabab Charafeddine - Typography
Omar Sawalha - Jordan Unit Producer
Motasem Awad - DP - Jordan
Frederic Fontaine - Morocco Unit Producer
Lahcen Mellal - DP - Morocco
Noha Tawfik - Producer - Egypt Unit
Reema Kandil - Producer - Egypt Unit
Ramy Salem - DP - Egypt
Links
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