JUNE 16th 2014 - the idea that moved Tunisia wins gold at Dubai Lynx

This. People, this is why I wanted to get into advertising. It's not the media chosen, it's the idea, it's the message, it's the spread, and here it all comes together beautifully. Reinvigorating an entire country, encouraging them to dust off their shoulders, look to the future and get back to working together for a better life. A well deserved win last night for Memac Ogilvy Label Tunis in the Dubai Lynx awards. Every single media was used, 6 brands and 5 major Tunisian media went all in on the idea, it took off like fire on twitter. This, my friends, is great.

Tunis, January 14th 2011. Tunisians put an end to 23 years of brutal dictatorship. It was a moment of intense hope. But we were all too soon brought back to reality. The entire country went on strike and economic activity was soon left to a standstill. The advertising industry, like many others, was completely stuck. Brands were quite willing to advertise in order to kick-start the economy, but they were afraid of public perception. We needed to find a way to encourage the people to get back to work and start rebuilding the country we had all fought for.
The content developed by the media spread to social media via 16juin2014.com and people began to imagine wonderful futures and call everyone for action. #16juin2014 hashtag was n°1 top trend topic on Twitter all day long. At 6pm, the debate was everywhere on TV, radios, blogs... Getting back to work quickly became an act of resistance. The operation was covered by most Tunisian media, special shows around the event were broacast on radios, including Radio Tatouine (far south of the country) who spontaneously held a June 16th day. International networks and magazines also issued special bulletins and reports. As getting on with life had become a political act, people massively got back to work the next day and the 6 brands recommenced traditional marketing. Others soon followed. From $0 to $143.000 media spent the first week and $380.000 the following week.
So we decided to show everyone how bright our future could be if we all started building it now rather than look back nor complain about the present. We convinced 6 brands and 5 major Tunisian media of which Radio MosaiqueFM, NessmaTV, the 2 newspapers La Presse and Al Chourouk and online magazine Webmanager to participate in the June 16th 2014 campaign. During a whole day, the media acted as if it were June 16th 2014 and presented Tunisia as a prosperous, modern and democratic country.

Advertising Agency: MEMAC OGILVY LABEL TUNISIA Tunis, TUNISIA
Creative Director: Nicolas Courant
Copywriters Mehdi Lamloum/ Asma Kanzari/ Yosri Mimouna/ Yassine Boughaba/ Moez Achour
Associate Creative Director :Gerald Heraud