#FirstArabicCountdown
The UAE Public Diplomacy Office
Issue 56 | September 2020
Agency
TBWA\RAAD
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Walid Kanaan Executive Creative Director: Bruno Bomediano Senior Copywriter: Maian Alken Senior Art Director: Sarah Guessoum Designer: Mohammad Alkawas Senior Designer: Rijin Kunnath Motion Designers: Lucas Pimenta, Camilo Rojas
Production Team
Head of Production: Rouba Asmar
Other Credits
Head of Digital: Emad Doughan Social Media Manager: Yousif Noureldine Digital Project Manager: Abhimanyu Kannan Content Creators: Omar El Dehneh, Ahmad Aborady, Santiago Ramirez Associate Director: Jeed Almojalid Senior Account Director: Konstantin Goczol Chief Development Officer: Ghassan Kassabji Chief Innovation Officer: Jennifer Fischer Corporate Communications Director: Romy Abdelnour Influencer marketing & Digital Talent Agency: ITP Live Media Agency: OMD
Date
July 2020
Background
While people in the UAE and the Middle East were coming out of lockdown and returning to the “new normal” at different rhythms, the team of scientists and engineers at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and the UAE Space agency was gearing up for the culmination of 5.5 million hours of hard work to launch Emirates Mars Mission’s “Hope Probe”, the Arab world's first interplanetary venture, a historic event not only for the Emirates, but for the entire Arab world. In this challenging time, the task was not just to raise awareness for this historic moment, but to give it its true meaning of hope for the region, to show that nothing is impossible, not even reaching Mars.
Idea
The first-ever Arab space mission to Mars, launched by the first-ever Arabic countdown. #FirstArabicCountdown The countdown is one of the most exciting and gripping moments of any space mission. It marks the final moments of years of collective effort and creates anticipation amongst everyone. The most famous launch countdown was for Apollo 11 that first put man on the moon. Since then, we’ve heard it in the language of all the spacefaring nations, Russian, French, Chinese. The idea was to elevate the launch countdown to a rallying cry that unites people creating a feeling of shared pride, excitement and inspiration for the future. Launched with an emotional manifesto film that addresses the pride in every citizen of the Arab world, the campaign celebrates “a new era for Arabs in space”, inviting people to share their #FirstArabicCountdown to the space mission. A ‘Lens of Hope’ that performs the countdown was produced on Snapchat to further engage the community. The lens incorporates audio, video and keywords, allowing people to give the count down the go-ahead.
The campaign extended across different media, including social and digital channels, as well as radio. The countdown aired in prime locations and landmarks, on the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, as well as outdoor displays, buildings and cinemas across the Emirates.
A number of local, regional and global influencers, TV and radio anchors and celebrities joined the mission including David Luiz, Jacqueline Fernandez, Gary Vee, Jay Shetty, Muniba Mazari, Ragheb Alama and Ahmad Helmi, encouraging non-Arabic speakers to learn Arabic countdown and inviting people to tune in to the big event. European and Middle Eastern ambassadors to the UAE even joined the movement, sharing their own countdowns and messages of support.
Results
The #FirstArabicCountdown did spark a movement that galvanized people of the Arab world, creating a feeling of shared pride, excitement and inspiration for the future.
In a short span of just 8 days, the campaign on social media garnered: • More than 15,000 mentions • More than 400 million impressions on Twitter • More than 35 million in reach across different platforms, with a whopping engagement rate of 25% on Facebook/Instagram • When the launch got postponed due to unfavorable weather conditions at the launch site, the campaign gained further momentum and became trending topic on Twitter, as people from across the region collectively hoped for the weather to improve.