The 3omdaz digest

Ramadan 2015 - Post 8 - Honorable Mentions

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-2015-honorable-mentions/

Ramadan 2015 - Post 7 - The Concrete Jungle

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-2015-the-concrete-jungle

Ramadan 2015 - Post 6 - CocaCola Changes The Ramadan Advertising Game

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-cocacola-changes-the-ramadan-advertising-game

Ramadan 2015 - Post 5 - Amr Diab Overdose

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-2015-amr-diab-overdose/

Ramadan 2015 - Post 4 - Big Blue Strikes Again… Is This Last Year’s Ad?

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-2015-big-blue-strikes-again-is-this-last-years-ad-pepsi

Ramadan 2015 - Post 3 - The Snacking Edition

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-the-snacking-edition

Ramadan 2015 - Post 2 - The Telecom Fight

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-ramadan-2015-battle-of-the-telecoms/#.VYqhWhuqqko

Ramadan 2015 - Post 1 - Disappointing start

Link to Post release 1 :)

http://scoopempire.com/ramascoops-disappointing-start-for-2015-ramadan-ads

ArabNet Beirut - March 2015 - Panel Discussion: Social Influencers and Brand Sentiment

Hi folks

I was honored to be part of the panel discussion entitled: Social Influencers and Brand Sentiment.. this was part of the prestigious ArabNet Beirut Conference

The session was moderated by Amer Tabesh, Producer and Presenter in Future TV

Fellow panelists were:
- Peggy Khoury - Social Media Manager - Phoenicia and Vendome Hotels
- Nadia Mneimneh - Fashionsta and Instagrammer
- Gino Rady - Lebanese Blogger and Social Media Icon

Check it out..
Hope you find it useful :)

Cheers
3omdaz

The campaign that saved Ramadan 2014..

Every year, comes out 1 campaign that becomes an icon for years to come.. From “Bibo far2a3 Gigi” in the early 2000s, to Melody Tunes (ol Ingelesh, ol za tayem) in 2007, Maxibon “Abooya” & Mobinil Dayman Ma3 Ba3d Song in 2012.. this year, it is beyond no doubt that Tecno Mobile is this campaign.

ِAfter a rather disappointing season this Ramadan with little good copies; Hany Ramzy's thighs, and the Fridge that el gen el azra2 el quite fond of.. Tecno Mobile come to us with a fresh concept in 8 different copies that are all as hilarious..

It is becoming inevitable that mobile is the most important device in our lives, it is the one device that does not stay more than 10 meters away from you at any point during the day, you wouldn't go back home if you forgot your wallet but you'll definitely go back for your mobile.... need I say more?

With more than 120% penetration on mobile phones in Egypt, it is about time to elevate the smartphone penetration, currently sitting at a mere 15-20%.

Not the whole world can afford an iPhone 5S or a Samsung G5, someone had to step in with a more convenient option.. a more affordable thus attainable option.. is Tecno Mobile that option?

From a campaign point of view, the ads are great.. Great creative input from BBDO Cairo, great interpretation and cinematography from award winning director (and ex creative director) Ali Ali..

The situations are real, everyday hiccups that you find yourself in and only a smart phone can help..

Speaking of real situations, we actually beat you to a donkey selfie a couple of months ago on a business trip to upper Egypt :)

From another stand, the campaign seems to be getting a lot of heat for 2 reasons:

A lot of people look at the campaign as an elitist one, looking down at doormen, mechanics, makwageyya...etc.. Well the fact of the matter is, if you're already one of that class, you'll probably just find it funny because these are situations that you come across in your day to day..
Haters will always be haters... But that wave seems to be gaining popularity
The phones sells itself as the "Smartphone for everyone"... I dont think "everyone" can particularly afford a phone that is 2300-2800 LE... Coming to think about it, the caliber we saw in the ad would be barely making this amount of money a month, let alone spare it on a smart phone for their leisure.. so I'm not sure if the disconnect here came from the client brief (which didnt highlight the price), or the agency that took their humor way too far to actually omit the fact they're actually going off brief..
Either way, being so humorous about a certain chunk of society, while giving them a phone they can't afford will definitely loop back to point #1, that you're actually making fun of them...
Also one piece of advice to Tecno Mobile social media handlers, make your dialogue on Facebook in Arabic, immediately... Some people are already not too happy with the ad but are asking for the phone anyway, at least reply back in the language they prefer; don't talk from your ivory tower up in the sky.. they wont like it and they'll lash you for it... soon

Concluding remark... great ad, loved the scripts and the humor... I just hope it sells well with such a hefty price-tag.
Thank you BBDO and Ali Ali

Thats all this time..

Till we meet again,

3omdaz

Ramadan 2014 - The Sh*t Ads post

Hello Friends,
Hope Ramadan is treating you well so far..

As we approach the end of Ramadan with less than 10 days ahead of us, I took all the time possible to wait for these to counter the damage they've done to us over the past 20 days.. But since there wasn't much into their campaigns than what we actually saw... so i'll have to crown them the worst of Ramadan 2014

Cotonil:

Being the local underwear brand in the country, it was no surprise the Cotonil will go with a local activity.. But this, this is just taking local and throwing it out of the window...
With a series of very frail teasers that leave you not longing to keep track of what comes next; they come to us with this copy.. A TVC that says nothing about the brand, humiliates Hany Ramzy by dancing in his undies (a sight probably no one would want to see) and destroying a classic piece of Egyptian culture.. Fouad El Mohandes' and Soad Hosny's musical from Ganab El Safir (1966).. Even worse, they haven't even paid the rights to the music, thus why it's been taken off air.... El Hamdulellah!

A silly copy that was wisely replaced with this copy.. Which i think is a much better alternative, but the damage has been done anyways... The sight of Hany Ramzy's thighs will probably stick in my memory for a while..

Bank Misr:

OK so weak creative with bad humor is one thing, but an entirely stolen concept that has absolutely no cultural relevance is just absurd.

Riverdance has risen to stardom in the mid 90s when introduced to stageon EuroVision by an Irish couple… So its not only pertaining to a certain culture, its actually very specific to a certain family that seem to have made this a profession.. The relevance of this copy to anything Egyptian has raised a lot of eyebrows and created a major wave of questioning and ridicule on social media, such as the below.

Recipe of a failed copy, a bad song with inaudible lyrics and incoherent choreography that is not even in sync.

What really bothers me actually is the fact that for the past couple of years, the Bank Masr people have always come to us with pretty decent copies (Corporate Copy and and Masra7eyyat in 2012).. Too bad they approved this concept this year..

Mega Cookies:

OK.. so I took my sweet time with this, watched all the copies, over and over again… Asked friends inside and outside the industry; thinking that something is wrong with me and I cannot get it..

Turns out that everyone share the sentiments to the Mega Cookies ad… a horrible set of ads that have nothing to do with….. anything, really!

From standing at the edge of someone deathbed to getting robbed to a Korean ping-pong…. What are they trying to say here… seriously?

I’ll do my best to decipher the message here… amongst all life’s pressures, Mega Cookies will take you out of it all on a 5 minute journey of indulgence that you won’t feel anything else around you?

I think the team at Nestle thought that it would be a good idea to take things over the edge and take the risk of an eccentric copy, as they did with the first Maxbon copy of 2012.. but this one was taking it a bit too far..

The result? A major backfire in Nestle’s face that dropped brand love to subzero levels in a jiffy… khosara!

Concluding remark

I'm not writing all of this just to shoot someone in the foot, hope the makers of these ads take this critique with an open heart, use the learnings and run with them for a better stronger come back next season

Till we meet again,

Cheerio

3omdaz

The Telecom Post - Ramadan Galak :)

Hello friends,
Welcome back

As we all know; Ramadan is the biggest season of advertising in Egypt; with the highest TV viewership, the most expensive ads and of course; the year’s best creative output.

Last week, we’ve discussed the work of both poles of the CDS rivalry.. Comes next is a rivalry that is not any less fierce, the competition on Telecom Operators.

In this post we’ll discuss the works of all 3 operators.. so without further ado.. let’s dig in J

Vodafone

Just to shed some perspective on the matter, the cost of airing a 30 second TV spot in Ramadan is obviously higher than normal months; roughly around 40-50 thousand EGP (yes, every single time you air it).. so by the time you went to get yourself a bottle of water or ran to the bathroom for a quick pee; you probably missed around half a million pounds of advertising.. That makes the Ramadan budget for any advertiser a significant chunk of their full year spend.

Vodafone this year decided to play things differently, instead of dumping millions and millions of pounds on a TV copy that will get aired along with 10 other ads in the same ad-break; they tackled things differently here; Take a 30 minute segment on MBC Masr, brand it completely; get 3 rising comedians (ex Bassem Youssef entourage; Khalid Mansour, Ayman Wattar & Shady Alfonse) to present it for you…. Cherry on top, you give out a 100,000 EGP A DAY to a lucky winner!

Coming to think about it, the cost of all these together could be end up generating efficiencies for the Telco giant. (3 million pounds for the prizes, say 5-8 million pounds for the 30 minute airtime, plus the production cost and the Trio fees).. So assuming the whole project cost them 15 million pounds, it is still cheaper than what they would have spent on airing a normal copy.

For those who haven’t seen it, the idea of the program is really simple; we’ll pick 5 numbers at random and if you’ a Vodafone customer have these numbers in your phone number (in any order), and sent Vodafone an SMS; you get in the draw for a chance to win 100,000 EGP… simple J

Being the brilliant script writers they are; along with the creative agency’s creative team; Khalid, Ayman and Shady always find innovative ways to make the selection of the 5 numbers quite intriguing, witty and fun… I have only seen bits and pieces of the program but I honestly liked what I saw.. I urge you to watch some and judge for yourself.. they’re available here on VF’s Youtube channel.

While the choice of the anchors of the show is quite smart; I’m not sure if they would appeal to the full audience of Vodafone..

While Khalid, Ayman and Shady are pretty good scriptwriters, actors and comedians, I feel that their use jargon and sarcasm of certain situations; would only appeal to the A/B class segment… I’m not sure if you ask a taxi driver about the opening sequence of the program; he’ll recognize that the trio is actually reenacting Daft Punk’s Get Lucky.. he’ll see a silly clip of 3 guys in shiny suits, wigs and a motorbike helmet (nice helmet btw, Shady).

One other flaw that this project has, is that the whole investment has been made only on one channel, so all the efforts there are focused on the MBC Masr audience only.. so while all the other advertisers are relying on a push approach, where they push their copies onto the ad breaks of popular Ramadan TV serials and programs. Vodafone here applies a pull approach, where they are relying that the word of mouth the competition will generate will pull the audience to the MBC Masr screen at 10 pm..

I see this very risky because nowadays, and especially in Ramadan, people are becoming more content driven rather than channel driven.. So gone are the days where you would sit infront of one TV channel and waiting for whatever content it will throw at you.. You now hold your remote control and zap along until you find a piece of content that is interesting to you.. This makes the advertisers’ job to try and widen their reach as much as they can to capture as much as possible of their target audience with their messaging.. In Ramadan specifically, people know exactly what serial they want to watch, when they want to watch it and on which channels (plus the re-runs if they missed the first airing)… So assuming that you might capture their attention by being on air for 30 minutes on one channel could be a bit naïve..

As far as a non-MBC Masr viewer is concerned, Vodafone is not doing anything this Ramadan.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the program, a lot actually.. I just hope this doesn’t kill its flow.. They have a good platform, good ideas, an amazing crew that can get them places… If people get to see them properly!
A quick counterargument to myself though, if they’re giving out a 100 thousand pounds a day, you might as well want to tune in and see if you got lucky.

Great job to all colleagues on this project.. Kudos J

Mobinil

This is the kind of campaign that grows on you after a while, initially I hated it, bit by bit I started getting dragged into it… and now I LOVE it every time I see it.

Playing on the insight that people actually become pretty slow in Ramadan (especially this year with the long fasting hours, the scorching heat and just dealing with other fasting people), the discussion does really become that at some points of time… “was that me or you, did I ask for this or you just… uhmm…. Huh….?”... Who wouldn’t relate to that.

What I love about this one is the attention to detail in all aspects of the copy, the redundancy in the discussion, the confusion, the cast and the punchlines just make it a pleasure to watch every time..

My favorite part of the 3 copies are the discussions that happen..

· Heya di… bas mesh heya di.. ana mesh faker ay 7aga.. 3ata, enta faker 7aga?

· Ya ostaz law sama7t mateddakhalsh beini w bein el madam… hahahaha.. classic

· Ya ostaz keda mesh 7aneftar fel beit

Hatooli el copywriter abooso… Brilliant campaign, want to see it over and over again.

End note: One thing about it though, it has been a signature for Mobinil to produce a brilliant idea that will get people to talk about, with zero recollection of the message... so people will always remember the guy fighting the cheese stand at the supermarket, or being confused in the shop... but no one will remember what was the offer Mobinil was advertising in the first place... food for thought :)

Honorable mention – 7arreefet el net campaign:

Although this campaign has actually been airing for the past month or two, but I want to take the chance to salute the team behind this one as well.. Easily my favorite campaign of the year.

Again, the choice of cast, the situations and the reactions are just hilarious… I personally reenact the Hashtag copy with my son 2-3 times a day.. just hilarious.

Aside from the comedy on Hashtag, Selfie and Tag situations; they also got situations that really ONLY 7arreefet el net would understand, like the Ahmed Sheeba copy (which I personally didn’t know what it really meant till a friend showed me the original situation being imitated)

Beautiful campaign… just beautiful\

Etisalat

This one comes to us from my friends at King Tut Playground (ex Leo Burnett’s Mohammed Hamdalla’s new venture).. I really like this one as well.
The insights there are quite vivid to everyone, yet the KTP team did a great job putting them all together, to bring us to the conclusion that we really need to change how we operate as things are indeed moving very fast around us..
Who now doesn’t see a 2 year old using a tablet better than adults, weird kids in weird clothes and haircuts that change every 2 months.. The hash sign has always been there on telephone dialpads, nothing fancy there.. until the launch of Twitter, skinny jeans (and its 90s version of bantalo esteretch) have always been a part of a girl’s wardrobe, till a couple of years ago where they crawled into men’s fashion as well..

The world now is REALLY moving too fast now; as rightfully said in the copy (إللي ماجددش, إختفي - Those who don’t renovate… disappear)

Great insights, great art direction.. great copy.

Bravo KTP

Telecom Egypt

Telecom Egypt come back this year after last year’s disaster copy (Dawwar Gowa Zatak) with a pretty emotional copy..

Reminding us that Telecom Egypt has been a key participant in the important events throughout Egypt’s history; using real insights and real situations.. They have always been there indeed, from the Suez Canal nationalization, through the grey phone with the round keypad that every home in Egypt had, the internet dial up modem, to the day where mobiles were launched in Egypt (with Nokia Banana and Ericsson 788); when it actually cost you like 3 pounds per minute (w ne2fel el telephone b mofta7 el zero w keda)….lots of good memories with landline J

These aside, I really love how they played on the revolution situation; the telecom blackout between Jan 28^th-30^th when we all went back to basics and started dialing landlines all over again, great manifestation of it in the ad, where the protestor literally throws his mobile phone away and picks up the landline phone..

One fallout here, the overkill of Amir Eid and his Cairokee crew is becoming a bit too much.. I said it once in the Masr El Kheir ad and I’m saying it again.. The point about celebrity endorsement is novelty and enjoyment.. I don’t think getting them to sing in your ad is new, nor does it add any joy to it, as I’ve already heard them a million times before..
If I were them, I would stop taking ad contracts for a while, if this drags longer I think it will actually hurt their career where people will be bored of hearing them already, they’re all over the place.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I love the Cairokee crew and really admire their talent, but hearing them in one ad is great, hearing them in 50 ads is exhausting your talent.

One last thing worth mentioning, while Telecom Egypt has indeed been part of the Egyptian culture, they’re fading away.. with mobile phones reaching 100%+ on penetration, the decline on landline subscriptions and the high reliance on wireless connectivity in everything.. Telecom Egypt should definitely find a way to get back in the game (be it by introducing the 4^th Telecom Operator or other solutions)… I would steal a quote from their friends in Etisalat.. (إللي ماجددش, إختفي - Those who don’t renovate… disappear)..

Hope they learn the lesson and action it… before it’s too late.

That’s all I got for you this time around

See you when I see you J
Till next time, stay safe..

3omdaz

Big Blue strikes back - Pepsi Ramadan 2014

Hello friends,

It is without doubt that Pepsi has always been a moving force in the Egyptian advertising scene.. Creating ads that leave a mark in our memory for ages now.. For the past couple of years they've been quite idle, leaving Coke to dominate the ad scene and rise to the spotlight... Until last year..

Ramadan 2013 was a game changer for the CSD market, when Pepsi brought us this wonderful copy that took us back to our childhood days and brought tears to everyone’s eyes..

Worked out beautifully for them, Pepsi ad was the talk of town and our FB newsfeeds turned Blue overnight..

What we’re about to witness this year won’t be any different, I am writing this only 1 hour after the release of the Pepsi Ramadan 2014 ad on Youtube; it hasn’t gone on TV yet; and my newsfeed is already FLODDED with shares of the Pepsi film..

Now this is a very emotional copy, well written; well casted and well shot.. Including the biggest and brightest stars of the past.. be it Mama Nagwa & Bo2loz, Four M, The Egyptian Squad of 1990, Hesham Abbas & 7ameed or the star of this year’s copy; George Sidhom.. For those who don’t know, George Sidhom has been terribly ill for the past 10+ years and was nearly in vegetative state, bringing him back was a truly pleasant surprise.

While this is a great piece of work indeed; there are 2 things that I don’t quite get about the copy.

The ad does not give a Ramadan feel … So while gathering prominent figures of the Egyptian showbiz scene; none of them have anything to do with Ramadan (with the exception of the Boogi w Tamtam).. Last year they got all Ramadan characters, so maybe this year they run out of cast? Or is the point here is to “nekammel lammetna” regardless?
There’s a big disconnect in the demographic targeting of this ad vs what Pepsi is doing globally.. So in their global World Cup TVC, they have Janelle Monae singing in the background; a singer only known to the youngsters (and Nikki Minaj in the one before); clearly targeting teens and tweens.. Now they come in this copy and get a band formed in 1979, crew of a legendary masra7eyya that broke stage in 1981 and a song duo that was a smash-hit alright; but in 1992.. During my marketing studies, kan fi Professor tayyeb ebn 7alal that told us that Pepsi talks to 16-24s.. if that is still the case, then let me assure you that this target probably has no idea who are the people in the ad in the first place…
So for a 20 year old, Four M had stopped singing by the time he/she was 2 and he/she weren't even conceived when Egypt made it to the World Cup with this squad. Personally speaking, at the age of 29 I had trouble recognizing Gamal Abdel Hamid or Hesham Yakan..

I had the same comment on last year’s copy honestly, that spoke to the 80s generation.. This year they even took it a step further by talking to the 70s generation… Let’s see, maybe in a couple of years’ time we’ll see a Pepsi ad starring Naguib El Ri7ani and Sharafanta7.

The direction of the company for the past year or so has been #Yalla_Now... now mnein bas... momken tb2a #Walla_Zaman... azbat!

Nevertheless, it is indeed a great copy that I’m sure will touch the hearts of millions of Egyptians this year..

That said, it doesn’t just stop at the copy.. The whole objective (which will probably be revealed in days to come) and was apparent in the last 30 seconds of the ad; is for you to take a picture of an old “lamma” you had and renact with the same people and send it to their website.. once you do, they’ll collate all the pictures and light up the Fanoos in AbdelMon3em Riad square… very smart

So what do you think…. will we see more people sharing old pictures of themselves or their names written on a Coke can?

This is the first year that I cannot foresee a winner... as there is real competition..

We’ll have to wait and see

Stay tuned
Cheers

3omdaz

Ramadan 2014 - Post 1 - CocaCola a7la ma3....?

Hello friends,
Ramadan Karim

Welcome back, I long to connect virtually with all of you kol sana, your feedback is what keeps me coming back every year with more passion and drive to give you some useful timekillers for your reading pleasures…

If this is your first time reading this, enjoy the ride (this is an advertising critique blog btw)! J

It’s no secret that Ramadan is becoming of less intensity since 2011.. With the current country conditions, economy slowdown, high inflation of advertising prices as well as a horrible business year in 2013 that affected nearly all marketing budgets of 2014.. making advertisers more cautious about where they’ll deploy their monies, thus making Ramadan a bit of a question mark rather than a non-missable advertising festival.. fa yeegi el marketer men dol y2ollak tab mana afokk Ramadan b 3 normal months and still generate the same viewership.. so its a trade off really..

So instead of advertisers fighting over who gets the first spot after Iftar, willing to pay up to double price for a premium position ad; we now see merely 3-4 ads in a 6 hour post-Iftar viewership period in the first day of Ramadan.

See, Ramadan is a game of muscle, so it doesn’t just stop on who can make a good ad... It’s also about who has the weight to keep airing that ad for a full month.. So they literally put their money where their mouth is… Add to that some mandate of advance payments from media suppliers so you find yourself paying millions of pounds in advance vs paying in 60-75 days post airing..

All these reasons combined make us see less ads than we did in years before, and that is why a lot of advertisers are now moving into other high impact alternatives that are relatively cheaper than TV; such as Digital Media, Youtube, On Ground Activations…etc

So I’ll quickly recap on the ads that actually did make it to TV screens in the first day of Ramadan

Mountain View:

Since last year and these guys have been doing impressive ads.. This time taking a bit over the edge with the Hulk Ads.. An exaggerated manifestation of how frustrating it could be to live in our wonderful Cairo..

I mean, who wouldn’t relate to such situations, being stuck in traffic for longer than you’d want, trying to sleep but the ruckus of good old Cairo just wouldn’t let you.

On a serious note though, I’m getting a bit tired of the extremism in all real estate ads lately (including those of Moussa Coast TVC 1 TVC 2 ) in showing how unbearable the country is; when you want to break free from the bourgeoisie status and live the American dream of a garden, dog and nice little white mailbox with a red flag..
Keep doing this a couple of years more and these compounds will get raided by the underprivileged who think it’s heaven on the other side of the fence… just saying

You can show how great your real estate project is without blaspheming the everyday life of an average Cairene.

Grade: B

Nestle - Mega Cookies:

Ever since Maxibon launch in 2012, Nestle IceCream have taken the route of retro Instagrammish colors, fused in with some black comedy..

A strategy that worked nicely in 2012, less in 2013 (KhodFeshar) and now this..

I’m not too sure what to make out of it, but my initial feeling was “eww”..

Although it literally list out the product attributes and what it does to you (functionally and emotionally), but I still feel a big disconnect between the context of the situation and the consumption moment.

There isn’t a lot of science behind why I don’t like it.. so I’ll have to go with gut feeling..
Not my cup of tea honestly..

Grade: C

Misr El Kheir:

A very cool visual transformation from laborer to school student, or from student to astronaut.. A mellow ad of how little things can make a big difference.. my only issue with it; The Cairokee overkill.. exhausted is an understatement.
While the song is actually not bad, but I’m not much in favor of اللي تغلب به, إلعب به theory.

The point about using celebrities in the ad is relevance, association and novelty.. It was a poor choice to recruit a talent that people have heard a million times in a million ads before, and who were much strongly associated with another brand.. Maybe if they would have went for more of an underground band and brought to stardom, it maybe would have played well in their favor.

Grade: B

Coca Cola – a7la ma3:

Saving best for last… obviously

It’s no secret that CocaCola Egypt has raised the bar of their ideation and advertising to a whole new level. So instead of advertising functionally saying how great the product is; they’re giving you reasons to fall in love with it more with every copy they produce… Thus working to be - as per Saatchi & Saatchi’s jargon - a Lovemark.

In this campaign, Coke have used a mix of being both a global and a local brand.. while getting the best of both worlds.

So while the name-on-Coke initiative is not a new idea (it was actually applied in a nationwide campaign in Australia 2012 , and awarded a Gold Lion in Cannes for the Best use of Outdoor); the way they executed the campaign locally however was very smart.

Instead of paying a gazillion dollars for sponsorship of one mega star.. they got a gazillion local stars/ mini-celebrities; each in his own field.. To make sure that no matter who is watching the copy; they would still relate by seeing a fellow friend/workmate on the TVC..

Below are only the ones I was able to identify... Feel free to add on to those if I missed out on any..

Abla Fahita, Mohamed M7asseb (DJ), Tameem Youness (Creative Director and known for Rasseeni video blog), Aly Mazhar (Personal trainer - Be Fit), Bibo w Beshir, Sayed Abu 7afiza, Hadrass & Fazza3 (Al Kabeer), 2ar2ar Sandood (Internet sensation of 2009 Valentine’s Day), Hossam Hosni, Mostafa Talaat aka Moos (Like Jelly Band), Cairokee Band, Omar Taher (Writer), Amina Khalil (Actress)

While being a global adaptation, the idea itself is a marvellous platform of sharing and multiplying sales… Imagine going into a 3ozooma and finding each and every person’s name on his custom-made bottle/can.. I have my reasons to love it of course J

While this was a nice campaign reveal, it would be very interesting to see how they use the learnings they got from their friends in Australia to translate a nice-to-see TV copy into a solid business case, so its not just about the TVC, its about how they stretch it further…

Australia grew sales by 7% in 3 months.. will witness another record from Egypt this year? We’ll have to wait and see

Nevertheless, Coke gave us a highly loved and shareable copy that we’d definitely love to see over and over again..

One dare though… can you make me this can? ;)

Grade: A

That's all I've got for you this time.. Stay tuned for more next time.

See u when I see you..

3omdaz

Ramadan 2013 - Post 4 - The ads I will NOT talk about

Hi guys,
Hope you're holding up well this Ramadan..

As we're halfway into Ramadan now, most of the ads are already out (the good ones at least).. We've already dug through most of them, with the exception of a couple, which are below.
This post will be a bit different.. I will not analyze nor grade any of the below ads, just showcase them and leave the evaluation up to you..

The below bunch are ads of brands that I work on or their direct competitors.. Thus it does not make sense for me to analyze or grade any as my assessment will never be neutral.. so these are just for your viewing pleasures (and further discussion if you want)..

Cadbury Dairy Milk:

Tang:

Galaxy:

The below set however, is just too horrible to even start discussing (in my view at least).. So i'll also leave them up to you..
With all their flaws, they still managed to stir a lot of discussions and raise awareness amongst consumers.. Maybe that was the original objective, awareness and not likability..

Swani:

Cotonil:

That's all for now..Stay tuned for more..
As always, hashtag #3omdazblog or mention @3omdaz for further discussions...

Cheerio
3omdaz

Ramadan 2013 - Post 3 - The Telecom Post... really?

Hello friends,

As far as I can remember, Telecom operators have always been the hottest advertisers in the country, the ones with the biggest budgets to produce and air top notch ads that keep us entertained all month long.. Memorable examples of these would be: Mobinil's Ana batkallem w a2ool ba7ebbak in 1997, Vodafone's Bibo far2a3 Gigi and Etisalat's all Star roster in 2010,, to name a few of course..

Below is a compilation of all the Telecom ads that have been released so far, lets see if they were up to that reputation..

Vodafone:

The general trend in advertising is to take one to a world away from reality, a magical land of fantasy.. That would probably make you look up to the ad and aspire to what this brand will make you achieve.
This year, Vodafone took this rulebook and flushed it down the toilet, an extremely down to earth ad.. As in literally down to earth.. They took a step back away from koll el hags bta3 el e3lanat da and gave us the essence of what being a true Egyptian is about, el gad3ana, helping out in time of need and simply sharing..

They took real situations, real people with real sentiments and actions that you see Egyptians practicing everyday.. A group of people pushing a broke car down the road, hanging on to a bus to get one's bicycle going or just splitting a loaf of bread with a fellow coworker or friend..
The essence of the ad is quite noble actually, reiterating that Egyptians have always had sharing in their DNA way before social networks and mobile phones made it even easier.

They passed on the message alright, a bit too much I would say.. to the extent it harmed the overall ad quality in the eyes of many. The production of the ad is so poor (not sure if intentional), as if it was shot with a mobile camera (a cheap mobile kaman).. Pixelated/shaky shots as well as minimal recoloring in post production.. Making the overall ad look as if its an amateur compilation uploaded onto Youtube by MizoTiger17.

Question though, is this a way to get closer to the mass market? which comprises most of the operator's revenue.. As you can imagine the cashcow of the company are prepaid cards, la b2a roaming wala mobile internet w fatooret telefone b 2,000 LE wel kalam da... Its all about the mass and the guy who tops up his phone with 25 LE a week.. w el 3adad fel lamoon b2a.. Thus the mass revenue.

The weird thing is that the ad does not advertise a specific offering (a reduction in minute rates, or double benefits on prepaid cards).. It is a generic brand message directed to all Vodafone consumers.. Making a lot of people feel left out. Which I think is not very clever of the VF Team.
I'm not an elitist, at all actually.. But I just find it difficult hard to relate to such an ad; as it doesn't address me nor does it reflect my lifestyle.. Maybe it would score better with other SEC targets.

Having Mounir on the ad definitely adds to the copy, the lyrics however didn't help much.. Actually the overall copywriting of the ad didn't sink well with me.. Ma7shi w Fteer, w kattar sheriak together.. in one ad... no thanks!

I understand the intuition of getting down to grassroot level but a brand as big as Vodafone shouldn't have taken such a risk.. Would be very interested to look at the copy test results for this across different classes though, yemken ana elli ghaltan

Grade: C

Mobinil:

Funny ad, perhaps... to some people.. not to me though..
As always, Mobinil comes with a high production ad, with lots of fireworks and florescent colors.. Big "creative" idea, if you wanna call it creative.. that does not get the message across..
That was always Mobinil's way of communication, an extremely sticky ad that wouldn't tell you anything.. So we all remember the Yasmine AbdelAziz "7amra" Monkey ad or the "Ya Wad ya t2eel" copy a couple of years back.. but what was the ad about, what was the message they wanted to get across? Matla2eesh, zero, none.

One more thing, I'm not too much in favor of swearing in the ads, Etnayyeli, Allah ye7ra2ek.. I'm not sure how this helps with the humor or the message delivery of the ads.. The Mobinil target is quite broad and lots of kids watch this... not too responsible from such a respectable brand to teach kids such jargon.. mesh enni 3am el mo2addab el 7assas, but just saying

Although this comes as a disappointment for lots after Mobinil raised the bar tremendously with their Dayman Ma3 Ba3d song last year.. Bas overall fine, ok ad.. may2olsh la2... not the best i've seen come their way but not too bad either.. The Youssef Eid element probably serves them humorously well.. and that sexy black Shelby too (the car, ma7addesh yefham ghalat)..

Grade: B-

Etisalat:

Took me some time to find the Etisalat Ramadan copy, as they are still airing with not-so-fresh copies, The Austronaut shisa copy and the other one with the morphing play dough.
After some search, I found this.. A tactical copy for a specific offering on mobile data.. nothing too special.. They can air this at any given non-Ramadan day and I still wouldn't remember it.

Khosara..

Grade: D not for the copy, but for the overall effort,, or should I say for the lack of it

Telecom Egypt:

Since the NTRA announced issuing the license of the 4th telecom operator and the industry has been cautiously awaiting this dormant giant that has offices in every inch of the country and how their business will be affected upon their launch.
So the Telecom Egypt team have been beefing up a lot on their internal and external teams to prepare for the launch and they came up with......this!
A very long copy that doesnt say much.. Not does it have any insinuation of the new mobile service being kicked in, with the exception of one guy talking in his mobile phone in sec "35..

I'm quite disappointed to be honest, if this is the launch of the mobile division of Telecom Egypt..
If the intention here is a rebranding and change of face of the 100 year old brand, then maybe I can start being a bit more lenient.

Nevertheless I still don't like the ad, very tes3eenati.. the ad industry has come a very long way since then..
I won't grade them now as "hopefully" we didn't see everything of this campaign yet.

Grade: N/A

So overall, I can confidently say that this year none of the Telecom operators gave us anything appealing enough for entertainment or starting a discussion, let alone get a message across.. Aho e3lan wel salam.. which is not what we expect from such a giant category with big players..

w 3la ra2y 7adret El Nazer Abdel Mo3ty f Madraset El Moshaghebeen... lam yanga7 a7ad!

Hope I reflect some of your sentiments there.. I'm quite sad at the level of telecom ads this year..
As always, if you have any questions or want to discuss something further, hashtag #3omdazblog or mention @3omdaz and we can have a chat :)

Till I see you next time,
Adios Amigos,
3omdaz

Ramadan 2013 - Post 2 - The Rise of the Blue Giant

Good day friends,

NOW WHAT THE F*** WAS THAT?????

haha... I guess that was everyone's reaction upon seeing the Pepsi ad.. wasn't it?

As mentioned on the previous post, Chipsy and Pepsi were cooking something, something BIG.. something that none of them could carry on their own or sustain with their individuals budgets.. and guess what, it is not only Pepsi & Chipsy Egypt.. They actually had to tie in with Pepsi and Lays Arabia to put all their coins and creative assets in one pot... and the below was the result... and it was BIG alright!

So apparently Pepsi as we know it back... EXTREMELY Emotional ad... Very moving and touches the heart in a jiffy.. Personally I got goosebumps upon seeing the late Fouad El Mohandes (my personal favorite actor of all time).. Very high production value (explaining the merger of Chipsy, Pepsi, 7-Up and Quaker to come up with this. Took more than just money apparently, when Pepsi asked for a beef-up in the creative talent on the BBDO (Pepsi's ad agency) roster, which saw a move of 3 of Leo Burnett's creative talents to the BBDO Team.. Yes, e7na el kar bta3na da 3amel zay la3eebet el kora, but we don't have a transfer season, its all year long :)

There was also quite a collaboration between BBDO Cairo, BBDO Dubai and the post production team, brought specially to the Middle East to resurrect 3ammo Fouad.. so chapeau bas for the team work there, especially on such a big project.

The wave of emotion that followed this was just outstanding, woke up on the morning of the 14th and found my Facebook newsfeed flooded with shares (as with everyone else I guess).. Obviously no need to reiterate how big the social wave was as it is something we all noticed and even took part of.

But enough speaking of how amazing the ad is... This is a critique at the end of the day, so I'll do my best trying to dissect that for points that not necessarily provoked me, but at least intrigued me to think:

With all the greatness of the ad, the high production and the great memories it brings, I'm not seeing where Pepsi/Chipsy/7Up/Quaker fit there. There is no brand role in the ad.. If I take out the Pepsi Truck and put a Vodafone store, it will still work.. Or take out the Vodafone store and put in a huge Juhayna yoguhrt tub, it'll still work (at least its even more relevant for Ramadan)
The ad depicts the most popular Ramadan icons of all time; all who ended their Ramadan careers by the mid 1990s (if not before kaman)
Fattoota (last season aired 1986)
Bougy w Tamtam (ceased around the early 90s)
Nelly & 3ammo Fouad (last Fawazeer aired around 1995)

Last time I checked, Pepsi's core target audience is 16-24 (aw da elli khadnah fel madares at least).. with the bull's eye at 18 y/o... so this means eno by the time 3ammo Fouad stopped airing, that given person from the Pepsi core audience was still in his mom's womb... aw mama w baba makanoosh lessa 2ablo ba3d.
And its not just me, below is just a snapshot of what people of that target audience think of the ad... they dont even have a clue!

So this makes me wonder, is Pepsi trying to win back the hearts of mawaleed el 70s and 80s (who are probably twice as old as the core target audience), where the scene was much less cluttered and Pepsi dominated the communication game? Or is it just a one off and we're back to the Nikki Minaj copy (elli ana personally lessa ma3rafsh heya meen aw beteshtaghal eh).. Fahhemoona bas w e7na m3ako
So after all the journey, w el fanoos, w el truck, w el sellem... Khado mel wad Tarek el makana el Amici om 15 alf gneh w eddolo taba2 konafa b 50 gneh w rawwa7 gary... just cz he met 3ammo Fouad?
If you ask me, its a cheap price to pay to stand toe-to-toe with the greatest comedian of all time.

To sum this up, i'll put my critical/over-analytical hat aside and still go with my gut feeling and initial reaction upon seeing this.. Its a great copy that brings back lots of memories, an ad that drew more than just a smile on my face (probably a dropped jaw with some tears too) and I'd definitely love to see it over and over again..

It didnt score well with everyone though.. Some people think its a hollow idea with massive funds of production, but that will always be the case... Some ppl love u, some poeple dont.. below are samples of both poles..

Love the ad or hate it; Pepsi has always been an advertising giant, so please stay this way... don't fade away as you did the past couple of years.. This raises the bar high, very high so make sure you're up to it in ads to come!

Grade: Can't give anything with Fouad El Mohandes in it anything less than an A... Thank you Pepsi

Uff... that was hectic.. I think I should stop the post here.. But there are still some ads to look into.. So I'll take on 7agat khafeefa hena then keep the rest for a future post.

Mountain View:

An OK set of ads, that will get you to talk about it once with your friends, maybe, then gone and forgotten.. Overly exaggerated but gets the message across..
I just LOVE the barbecue copy... Stereotypical as hell.. but still very funny.. gets to me everytime.. Batt eh ya 3am, ba2ollak tarb.. haha

Grade: B

I already gave my feedback about the below campaigns in the previous post (check it our here), the below copies are just an extension of the same campaign; for your reference if you haven't seen them yet.

Labanita:

Birell:

Aquarius:

Libra:

Sagittarius:

Anyhow, Pepsi's ad was the main theme of today... So I don't want to steal from its thunder much, nor make the post too long.. So i'll leave you in peace now and I'll see you next time..

One thing before I close this one off.. I write because I enjoy it, but I could have kept it to myself.. I post my writings however because apparently you guys enjoy reading them. I got around 1000 hits on the first article this year, in 48 hours (a number I got in the whole month of Ramadan in 2010), so I'd like to thank each and every one of you for coming over and reading my scribbles here.. Truly humbled and flattered!
For any questions or further debates, hashtag #3omdazblog or just mention @3omdaz.. I'll be happy to answer :)

One important thank you goes out to my good friend, Medhat Amin.. The whole blog thing was his idea in the first place :)

Stay tuned..
Cheerio
3omdaz

Ramadan 2013 - Post 1 - Where are my dam ads??

Hello friends,

It's Ramadan again, been a while since we've seen eachother.. hope everyone's keeping well amidst all the action we're living these days..

I don't see a need for a Ramadan drama series while we're living in one everyday... anyhow, I won't dwell into politics now, I'll just stick to what I know and what you're here to read.. ads critiques..

When talking about Ramadan ads this year, one can't help but ask, where are the dam ads?? With the 4th day of Ramadan kicking in now, we've only seen 5 brands on TV.. these are the ones we'll be tackling this time..
Back in the day, the first few days of Ramadan comprised a parade of the best creative work of the year, ppl wait for and evaluate the ads as much as they wait for the Ramadan content itself (Serials, Programs...etc)

This year is different though, only few brands are on air for now.. Just to give you some perspective on whats going on behind closed doors of ad and media agencies, and advertising clients conference rooms these days.. below are the reasons why:

1. Too much to choose from:

With the media fragmentation in the market now, 30+ serials, 20+ entertainment programs and a plethora of religious programs on around 15-20 channels.. the advertisers themselves are confused, which channels to air on, will the Nour El Sherif serial be hit or fail? Are people still watching Yossra or is Amir Karara and co stealing the spotlight from the older generation.. so advertisers are actually quite reluctant where to spend their (believe it or not) limited money.. so what they do is take a step back for the first couple of days, do a screening and filtration process, a bit of quantitative and qualitative research of who's watching what.. then decide on which baskets they'll place their eggs this year.

2. Market inflation:

There has been a horrific inflation in advertising rates of Ramadan, as in HORRIFIC.. ya3ni elli kan b 100 el sana eli fatet, el sana di b2a b 250.. so if u had budgeted ur advertising plans at 5 Million EGP.. now you need around 12 Million.. which is a drastic jump.. so what people have done is either succumb and just pay whatever the price tag says (and probably run out of budget by Ramadan 10th).. or wait and further negotiate with the media owners that el rates di "mesh 7atakol" bel baladi keda.. This puts decent pressure on the media suppliers who will not be able to sustain empty air time for a long time, thus drop their rates and we see more of advertising.

3. Cautious Silence:

A friend asked a very good question yesterday, where the hell are the telecom operator ads? Its a first that we dont see a Vodafone or Mobinil ad on the first day of Ramadan. I'm not sure why either but probably everyone is cautiously anticipating the rise of TE (Telecom Egypt), the 4th Mobile Carrier due to launch now.. maybe a restriction from the NTRA (National Telecom Regulatory Authority)?? we'll see..

This can still apply to other categories as well.. Where head-to-head competitors who cautiously await when their competition will strike so they can retaliate.

Enough literature w raghy 3al fady.. lets look at the ads..
Disclaimer bas saree3.. friends and colleagues.. This is a personal opinion, no hard feelings.. You know how much I respect you and your work.

One last thing before I start:

In our journey in life, we meet, love and lose people along the way.. I would like to dedicate this post to Ihab Hazem; aka Bob (Creative Director at FP7), who passed around a month ago.. Although I don't know you personally, but your contribution to the business and how inspirational you were to those around you is definitely remarkable.. Rest In Peace..

OK... here we go:

1. CocaCola.. Leih la2

So Coke is the first to advertise this year.. as usual punctual and leading the game.. with a redundant message unfortunately.

The ad in its essence is not bad, unity and togetherness are all noble values that we as Egyptians seemed to have forgotten and should be reminded of.. But the fact that it comes after a series of ads that more or less look and sound the same make people feel "Yeah, there goes another Coke ad".. The tie up with CairoKee and Aida El Ayoubi was quite nice the first couple of times.. now it got a bit boring honestly.. although the girl in this one is not Aida, a young lady called Nesma I believe (who more or less sounds like Aida).
Plus given the relatively uncluttered ad break (so far), we see the ad a LOT.. let alone it being a redundant ad.. I'm sure people will get sick of it by first week of Ramadan.. except if they're smart enough to kick in tactical copies stemming out from the principle ad.. we'll have to wait and see..

Grade: B- (so far at least)

2. Birell:

Taurus:

Cancer:

Aries:

Gemini:

As usual, the one-campaign-a-year brand comes back with a memorable campaign as they always do.. this time with major production budgets that enabled them to shoot 12 different copies to air throughout the month..

Cornering your brand in one communication platform can be quite challenging because Birell has been saying "Manhood" for the past 5-6 years minimum and there hasn't been much left to say.. But our friends at KTP (King Tut Playground) always find a way back and they come back BIG... 12 copies showcasing 12 different characters of different horoscopes... We have seen just 4 of which so far, but i'm sure the rest will follow..

A smart story line tackling the same party from 12 different POVs and I love how they always add their contribution to the daily slang... They've been saying Estargel for so long it became boring, now they changed it to Estazkar... A word that I'm sure people will start using on the street very soon..

Love what I've seen so far.

Grade: A-

Pepsi:

I'm not sure exactly what to make out of this one, its not even an ad.. But what it seems is that someone's cooking something.. something BIG..

Pepsi and Chipsy joining forces means it is something that none of them could carry on their own, which is even scarier because we're talking about the biggest 2 advertisers in the country..

Just connecting some dots, Chipsy and Pepsi, together, on the biggest TV channels in the Arab World, Nekammel lammetna... Nostalgia.... hmmm..... I heard some word about Fouad El Mohandes, Nelly & Sherihan... Did anyone say Fawazeer?

Stay tuned... It reveals tomorrow :)

Grade: lessa shwaya

Labanita:

Talk about a revamp... haha..

KTP comes back again with a brilliant copy.. A milk producer that has been there for the past God-knows-how-long, a boring pack and a more or less similar offering to anything else on the market..

What better than to blow it up completely and defame its heros..

For years, Soad and Sawsan have been the face of the brand.. Now it seems they've turned bad it was time to let them go... in style

Also love the closing line there: Kefaya Ba2ar Ba2a... Political insinuation... anyone? :) Makes me even like it more now..

Grade: A

Maxibon:

Never liked the old one, this one doesn't change my opinion much honestly..

I'm not sure how to justify my judgement there... I just dont like it..

I believe they raised the bar so high after last year's copy, they got trapped in how to take it further.. and this copy was the outcome..

Bad.. just bad

Grade: C

That's pretty much if for this time.. Grades might change as more copies of the same campaign unfold..

Hopefully next time we meet we can have some more ads and content to discuss.

Adios,

3omdaz

Special Report on AdIndustry in Post Revolution Egypt

Ramadan 2012 - Post 2

Hello friends,

Now we're a good 5 days into Ramadan, more copies have been released and more ads for us to nibble on..

Voila..

Etisalat:

Ever-since the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) agreement was kicked into action in April 2008 (changing ur mobile operator without changing your number), Etisalat have been playing this game heavily (being the newest player in an already mature & saturated market; they had to) they wanted to get the benefit of having a higher subscriber's base.. Playing every trick in the book to make people switch sides (churn as the telco industry calls it). But they've been doing it in a discreet hush-hush manner with real incentives for the user; they slashed minute rates, gave you extra minutes on your normal card value, bundled scratch card minutes and USB modem in one package, they even created a whole reward program (Fawzy.com) just for people to get hitched.

Now they've waged war officially with this campaign; a set of copies that serves as a cheat-sheet on the different ways you can "break-up" with your mobile operator..

In case this didn't happen with you; Etisalat are now calling people on their mobiles; asking them to jump ships onto their network in exchange of:

Keeping your number as is
Keeping the same benefits you're already enjoying with your current operator
Giving you a near 50% off on your monthly bill, for a period ranging between 6 months and 2 years

The above happened with my wife & I, wana 3shan aseel w akhla2i 3alya, took this offer to my current operator w laweit dra3hom as one of their "valued" customers is on the verge of leaving and got the same offer from them without the hassle of changing operators... haha..

Anyway, that's not the point.. back to the ad.. So here we see a stop-motion animation of a guy "breaking up" with his operator and the different ways of doing so..

I'll just stop and ponder a bit about the production, stop-motion is usually used for low budget purposes (e3lan me7tag yetla3 3al saree3 w b floos 2olayyela), and from my humble knowledge Etisalat is one of the top 5 spenders in the country so I dont think that a proper copy production would have been a major ta3weera for their pockets.. so I would assume that the stop motion here is actually intended, to give the copy the light humorous feeling it should convey.. which worked actually..

I like the ad, funny and to the point.. not their best of ads though..

Grade: B

Mobinil:

Well, regardless of how great or ungreat this ad might be, this is an excellent CSR campaign and the beauty of it is that intrigues viewers into it year after year.. I just LOVE ads that take you on a journey, even if it is a long journey. If the destination is worth it; you'll still remember every step of the way.. Just like Pepsi launched "دوري بيبسي للمدارس" to scout for U-16 hidden talents 10 years ago, now these kids are en-route to represent Egypt in the London Olympics with half of the team being brought up from the Pepsi scouting Program... That is how you build a long term commitment with the society and its consumers (not a hit and run campaign, something that is actually sustainable, tested and proven successful).

So Mobinil announced the campaign a couple of years ago that they're launching an initiative to employ 200,000 hands (100,000 jobs).. The above ads just serve as a flag, a reminder, making a statement that "HEY, we did it, and here's a sample"..

Both figures they've portrayed in the copies show that finding a job isn't impossible afterall; if you have the right drive and motivation.. It is even harder for these 2 models because each has his own hurdle to cross, more than any average jobseeker out there... but they did it!

Hopefully desperate & hopeless jobseekers would find inspiration in these fine gentlemen and be as self-drive as they were.

Grade: A+ for the initiative, B for the copy

Universal:

Its been a while since we've seen a decent jingle/choreography ad.. a one that you'd actually want to see again.

Nothing super special about the idea or the setting.. nor the music honestly (its just a fusion of a couple of 90s hits)

The ad is just an example of little things done right.. So the music, the choreography, the colors.. just give you an overall feeling of lightheartedness.. Wish Coca-Cola had seen this before they did their "happiness" ad..

Now THIS is a happy ad..

Grade: B+

Maxibon:

OK, so for the past 5 days, I've been thinking about this ad and what to make out of it..
I doubt there's someone who watches TV in Egypt who hasn't seen, heard or spoken about this ad.. Attitudes towards this ad are world's apart. So either you'll find people who LOVE it or people who just hate every single thing about it.. I doubt you'll find someone with neutral sentiments.

I belong to the second group here, I loate the ad... I detest every single thing about it..
Quite honestly, I don't see how this ad links to ANYTHING, anything at all that has to do with advertising.. how is this ad building up a case to engage consumers or invite them to try the brand; 3shan yaklo so7abhom ba3d kda?
Secondly, the idea is not unique at all (to the brand or the category).. If I remove the name Maxibon and put Chipsico, Tiger, Todo, Kalbaz, Mo2men's new sandwich, Gold's Gym, Kia Cerato.......... you name it... any other brand would fit here, so it doesn't even touch upon icecream in the ad, thus dropping on affinity.

What even makes me more confused are the below 2 points:

The makers of the ad are actually two quite brilliant gentlemen: with video blogger Tameem Youness (of Rasseeni) as the Creative Director behind it and directed by world famous Ali Ali (known for his Panda campaign - which won numerous worldwide awards including a Cannes Lion).. So I don't quite see how such an ad slipped both... Either that or something is wrong with me and the ad is saying something I'm not seeing (maybe the brief was directed at a specific target audience that we don't belong nor relate to).. But if it is, then why is the icecream priced at 5 LE a piece.. Now the people you're trying to reach here are already complaining about it... Wa2taha then ur problem is with the brief which said you should speak in such a tone to people who won't afford your product.
I was shocked to see that this ad actually belongs to Nestle, a Swiss brand that is perceived as gourmet and upclass.. I would have expected such an ad to come from these small time snack companies that shine in the spotlight for 10 seconds just to grab attention then disappear (Tiger, Al Hassan Wal Hussein Luncheon... even Dayem), but not Nestle. Even if the target talks and behaves this way, as a brand you shouldn't behave as such, because you have a lot of history to protect (vs Dice Underwear; which had every right to speak in such a tone, because their brand image allows that.. Check the detailed casestudy here)

The way I see this ad, is it that had "AWARDS" in Neon lights before the creators' eyes, so it is made for that purpose, to win awards for the agency and raise its profile, regardless of how that will affect that brand or reflect on its performance KPIs.. And the end of the day, the client is probably happy because they did an ad that everyone's talking about (bel kwayes aw bel we7esh), unaware that this could be a nail in their brand's casket (مسمار في نعشه... ترجمه حرفية).

Kol eli fo2 da is just me talking... Now, in the interest of fairness, the ad does have a LOT of groundbase and did score excellent with a lot of people (including A LOT in our SEC class).

An ad that automatically infiltrates itself into popular culture is automatically a successful ad.. and this one didn't fall short in that..

Tab3an el sha3b el masry mabeysebsh 7aga t3addi, with massive creativity and some modest photoshop skills.. So the next day this ad aired, there were 3 different knock-offs of this ad pertaining to different topics of Egyptian current affairs (mostly sports and politics).

Political reactions

Sports Reactions
Karim Hassan Shehata to Abou Treika after Zamalek's defeat in CAF Champions League

Another sports reaction:

To cut a long story short, the way I see it, the ad worked beautifully with a lot of people, it just didn't crack it with me... at all!

Grade: Wallahi me7tar, bas i'll go with my initial feeling and give it a D

That's all for now
Cheerio
3omdaz