Father's Day is usually ignored in the Middle East by Arabs. Etisalat, a brand that stands for togetherness, wanted an idea that would celebrate the close connections fathers have with their children by highlighting the sacrifices a father makes.

The brand's objective was to build engagement with its audience in order to emphasize the importance of togetherness.

In the Middle East, it is tradition that an Arab father forfeits his name upon the birth of his child. He is then called by his son’s/daughter’s name with the prefix ‘Abu’. So, for instance, Ahmed, the father of Ali, would be called Abu Ali, and thus be recognized by the name of their child. Over time, the father's birth name is forgotten as it is not used to address the father anymore.

We highlighted this insight as one of the major sacrifices a father makes for his children - starting with his own identity, and asked people to acknowledge their fathers by their birth names, a completely novel move in the Middle East.

Our strategy was to anchor ourselves around Father's Day and make this otherwise forgotten moment a popular occasion to recognize Arab fathers.

Targeting mostly younger people, our goal was to give them a tool to not only express themselves and acknowledge the contributions their father made to their lives, but do it in a way that would make them engage with the brand.

We launched our message with a powerful film comprising of interviews of several Arab fathers. We asked them a series of question, first about their current name, which of course they responded to with the traditional manner of being an "Abu" to their child. Then, in a surprising move, and one that caught them completely off-guard, we asked them about their own birth names, the ones that they gave up. Their reactions were emotionally charged as if they remembered an old friend.

The film was launched on online platforms on June 21st, asking the sons and daughters of the Middle East to use one of two hashtags: #IamTheSonOf / #IamTheDaughterOf - completing it with the birth name of their fathers.

The campaign took the Middle East by storm. Something of this emotional magnitude - to ask a father about his forgotten birth name - had never been done.

In what became a campaign that generated the highest brand top of mind awareness for Etisalat in 2 years, over 4 million views were clocked in just 2 days. More than 10 million impressions led to the highest ad awareness from the brand in more than 4 years.

More than 10 million impressions resulted in not only a 9% brand power increase, but it also made June 21st a significant day for Arab fathers finally, and gave the chance to thousands of children to acknowledge their fathers.