The Idea is to help creating national conscience in Lebanon through federative economy.

Leo Burnett’s objective is to promote a 5 year water plan as a first federative project and the creation of a civic and apolitical group of influence to support it through generated public opinion.

The campaign came in the form of an interactive book site that allows free access and the possibility to suggest changes, THE CHANGES ARE TAKEN IN CONSIDERATION because the book is posted in 6 parts. It evolves progressively.

The 3 languages book “A Bet for a National Conscience” is written by LB MENA chairman Farid Chehab, A final printed version of the book followed, also in 3 languages. It included most interesting citizens’ suggestions generated by the e-book version.

The innovative media solution was the creation of probably the first truly interactive book in the world.

Readers could enter each page and comment/propose their suggestions. The book would take in consideration their POV and evolve the content accordingly. The result was content that felt to be owned by citizens. To maximise this participatory effect, the most constructive suggestions of readers were included at the end of each printed version.

The main channel was obviously the book site; it was supported by a Facebook page and a twitter link. The campaign relied then heavily on editorial coverage generated by the book hype. The author was the host of most of Lebanese talk shows and continuously present in all influent media.

The book was also supported by punctual campaigns inviting readers to enter the site or to participate to the 2 launch events. The latter went on outdoor and daily newspapers.

The success is immediate; the site gets 8m hits and the book more than $2.2m in free media coverage.The objective was fully reached, as only 9 months after the e-launch, a group of influence, Civic Influence Hub (CIH), was created by 35 of the most powerful Lebanese businessmen. CIH raised on its first session US$2m to fund its activities.

The e-book was read on-line by more than 10,000 people across 318,510 interactive sessions. The site received 7,856,791.00 hits until march 2012.In libraries, more than 2,000 copies were sold until March 2012.Chehab is now invited to conferences, talk shows and universities to develop the ideas of the book.Finally, the success of the book led to the launch on April 25, 2012 of a parallel governmental project for water, indicating a strong correlation with the public hype, CIH creation and demand generated by the book.