FP7 Beirut scoops a silver award for Byblos Bank’s Cedar Reforestation Campaign at the Effie MENA Awards 2014
Beirut, December 1, 2014 – FP7 Beirut was honored at the Effie MENA Awards 2014 held on November 19 in Dubai, with a Silver Award in the Banking, Finance and Insurance category, in recognition for its design and execution of Byblos Bank’s campaign “The Lebanese are losing it”. Hosted by Gulf Marketing Review (GMR), the most hotly contested marketing awards competition, Effie Awards, honors marketing excellence and the most effective marketing communications campaigns in every region of the world. The awards were presented at the Saddling Paddock at the Meydan Hotel in Dubai, and the ceremony was attended by 1500 industry peers and leaders within the world’s most innovative and best performing companies.
The Byblos Bank’s applauded campaign stood out in mainstream and social media, as it allowed the Bank to play an instrumental role in the Cedar re-forestation of Lebanon’s mountains, by propagating a national concern among Lebanese people and inciting them to join in the countrywide efforts to plant cedar trees. Launched on the eve of Lebanon’s independence day 2013, the campaign showed different native items that the Lebanese are proud to export, and reminded people that the most important of all symbols of the nation – the cedars of Lebanon – are disappearing. Today, only 0.0002% of Lebanon’s territory is still covered with Cedar trees.
The much acclaimed campaign extended beyond advertising, as the bank teamed up with leading Lebanese environmental organizations to distribute Cedar boxes with a unique code that can be used by recipients to adopt some 3,000 Cedar trees planted by Jouzour Loubnanin Ehden, Ehmej, Kfardebian and Zaarour . Having become one of the most talked-about initiatives amongst the Lebanese at home and abroad, the campaign’s outstanding success has clearly over-achieved its objectives.
Commenting on the award win Tarek Miknas, CEO FP7 MENA, said: “We are honored to receive this Effie award for a campaign dedicated to our dear Lebanon. This shining success testifies to Byblos Bank’s strong commitment to maintaining and promoting the Lebanese national identity and helping the Lebanese preserve what they value the most”.
Nada Tawil, Head of Group Communication Department at Byblos Bank, said: “Our campaign capitalized on Byblos Bank’s proven record of reforestation initiatives and on a long-standing commitment to preserve Lebanon’s environment and heritage. We were very happy with the insightful work done by FP7 and the appreciation it received from the public when the campaign was first launched. The Effie Award comes as an industry’s recognition of this success.”
This award comes in a series of 23 metals received by various offices of FP7 in the region during the Effie MENA Awards 2014, including 1 Grand Prix, 7 Gold Awards, 5 Silver Awards, 10 Bronze Awards, solidifying FP7’s position as Agency of the Year (FP7/DXB) and Network of the Year (FP7/MENA) for the second year in a row.