Launching Cheers in the Middle East
The Entertainer’s 2-for-1 drinks app
Present in 15 countries with over 3 million members globally, The Entertainer is a popular 2-for-1 discount app offering Buy One Get One Free vouchers at restaurants, attractions, salons and more, across the Middle East, South East Asia, South Africa and Europe. Having made their mark in the food, beauty, entertainment and leisure categories, the next thing The Entertainer wanted to expand to was the drinks sector.
So when The Entertainer set out to launch an alcohol platform in the Middle East, I along with my Creative Director and Art team had to devise a creative strategy to go around the big challenge – talking about something that we cannot talk about in the Middle East – by implementing a phase-by-phase launch plan.
READING THE ROOM
Language was crucial. How can you allude to alcohol without actually saying “alcohol”. I went around “the problem” with a crate of alternate words. Think bubble/bubbly, fizz, spirits, spritz, bevvies, cold one, sparkler, brew – every possible apt synonym. The tagline was equally challenging. I had to come up with something that would roll off the tongue easily enough, convey “2-for-1” and also “alcohol”, and that’s how I came to –
Double the bubble for the price of a single
We developed a campaign strategy and executed a multi-channel TTL campaign to create buzz at every level. The first phase started with a teaser invite to filter, target and entice the right audience…
We created a landing page on the Entertainer website for people to register and know more.
Once they registered, the countdown timer would come on.
Those who registered would see a notification appear on their FB feed.
Along with a countdown timer to D-day
SEEING DOUBLE AND TEASING
We also created social posts and launched a paid media campaign that hinted at drinking “twice” with barware that was oddly two-headed or twinning…
ANNOUNCING IT
A series of animated banners introduced Cheers and the premise of 2-for-1 offers.
Banner Set 1
Banner Set 2
Banner Set 3
Then to amplify the announcement, we created an animated series of “reasons to cheer” along with more tactical banners to educate our audience about Cheers.
Banner Set 1
Banner Set 2
Banner Set 3
Banner Set 4
Simultaneously, we launched an EDM campaign. The EDM content was designed to be modular, which gave us the flexibility to remove or replace sections depending on the objective.
And the whole thing would be incomplete without a launch party (or five!), so we organised parties at select bars in Dubai to mark the arrival of Cheers inviting our registered users (watch the video here and mind the cheeky twin coasters).
EDUCATING AND SUSTAINING – PHASE TWO
Then it was onto Phase Two where we needed to educate, promote and sell. It’s hot in Dubai in July, and of course, people want to stay cool, visually and physically. With so many new merchants on Cheers, a ‘cool zone’ is always around the corner.
We created supporting animated digital banners that were all about “staying cool with Cheers”.
To engage and incentivise new prospects, we created a social campaign with fun quizzes on different drinks.
Social Post 1
Social Post 2
Social Post 3
Social Post 4
Since we wanted to get Cheers in as many hands as possible, we also integrated a Cheers cool zone map in the app. To target all those coming back after the summer break in August and give people a reason to cheer despite resuming work and school and getting back to the grind of daily life.
So we cheered them up by giving out Cheers for free, resulting in a successful campaign in the end, that got both Entertainer members and new prospects on board.
