2016 Bahrain Shopping Festival

BRIEF: Tamkeen - the cornerstone of Bahrain’s Economic Vision, hosts an annual shopping festival to stimulate economic growth by transforming the Island into a shopping and entertainment destination. For the 2nd edition of the shopping festival, the agency’s primary task was to completely revamp the festival’s identity and all following communication after research pointed to the ineffectiveness of the inaugural year campaign’s ability to stimulate the retail sector, support Bahrain’s entrepreneurs, attract GCC and regional tourism, and inject positivity into the community.

CHALLENGE: Last year’s shopping festival, and its Arabic-driven communication alienated a majority of the expat population, which led to a severe drop in sales. The brand visibility was zero, resulting in a need for a complete overhaul. Moreover, though this was the second edition, since the festival was being relaunched, expectations were high – both, from the community and the various ministries involved.

EXECUTION: We created a fresh, 360-degree campaign keeping in mind that the Shop Bahrain festival is about much more than just shopping. First, we rebranded the festival and designed a strong brand identity that demonstrated a colourful kaleidoscope of multiple cultures and offerings. This essentially set the platform and inspired a myriad of other mediums including print and television, where we employed the technique of ‘Paper Craft’ because it was the one material that’s commonly associated with shopping bags, festive decorations, gift boxes and wrapping paper creating a vibe of joyous celebration. RESULTS The outcome was an unprecedented rise in the number of shoppers, which shot up by 30% from last year’s result. When it came to numbers, this mega event generated an extraordinary 11 million Bahraini Dinars in sales revenue. 35,000 Bahraini Dinars over last year’s figures. But most importantly, we created an instantly recognizable brand and laid out a strong foundation for next year’s event.