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Awards and Events in association withCreative Circle
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JWT Cairo & Vodafone Egypt 4A’s Strategic Excellence Victory

31/10/2013
Advertising Agency
London, UK
106
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Grand Prix awarded at Nashville award show

 JWT Cairo’s Vodafone “Fakka” campaign has won the biggest prize at the biggest planning festival in the advertising industry’s calendar walking away with a Gold and the Grand Prix at this year’s American Association of Advertising Agencies’ (4A’s) Jay Chiat Awards for Strategic excellence in Advertising.  Adding the new wins to Fakka’s list of accomplishments at awards shows in 2013, the campaign is now the most internationally awarded piece of work from the MENA region, to-date this year.

To win the coveted Grand Prix, JWT Cairo’s Vodafone “Fakka” entry was deemed the best paper presented out of all 35 shortlisted entries across the award festival’s 5 distinguishing categories, by the executive judging panel.
 
The 4A’s is the leading trade association for the advertising industry in America.  The global Jay Chiat Awards honour strategic thinking and recognize professionals who have developed strong, innovative insights and initiated their work through creative campaigns that inspire both consumers and business.  

JWT MENA’s CEO Vatche Keverian spoke about the win saying, “JWT is the home of planning and the 4A’s Jay Chiat awards are recognized as the industry’s benchmark for planning excellence.  The Fakka campaign for Vodafone Egypt has delivered more than just business results.  It has garnered the most awards for a single idea from any agency in the MENA region, putting the JWT Cairo client-agency team on the global planning and innovation map, clearly demonstrating how strategic local insight delivers big value for clients. That is what JWT’s Worldmade philosophy is all about.”

The Vodafone “Fakka” campaign saw JWT reinvent the positioning for mobile phone recharge cards.  By creating micro-recharge cards, which can be substituted for ‘small change’, the agency’s solution addressed a pressing market need.   In Egypt, there is not enough small change circulating in the economy.  To compensate their customers, retailers and shopkeepers alike proffer valueless items such as chewing gum or sweets instead of the correct amount of small change.  

In Arabic, fakka means ‘small change’, so the Vodafone Fakka cards were released in 4 small currency denominations, specifically designed to fit inside the cash register.  As a result, retailers and shopkeepers now proffer change in the form of valuable airtime with the Vodafone Fakka cards.

Amal el Masri, Chief Strategy Officer at JWT MEA explained the significant insight that led to the creation of the Vodafone Fakka cards  “Our research identified a genuine issue in the daily lives of most Egyptians, they have a very limited amount of cash they can spend.  We wanted to address that need and by positioning the cards as a ‘currency replacement’ the market took to the innovation, opening up 46,000 new distribution outlets for Vodafone across the country in the process.”

Vodafone “Fakka: has won 13 international awards for JWT Cairo including a Gold plus Special Jury Prize for Best Channel Planning Strategy at the APGs in London this October, a Gold and Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals® and a Grand Prix at the Dubai Lynx.

Credits
Work from Wunderman Thompson Europe
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