As a broadcaster DISH provides a wide array of entertainment to its subscribers, hence creating a benefit driven ad would not have caught the attention of existing and potential new customers. We decided to create our own piece of entertainment that would bridge the cultural and generational gaps from which Arab-Americans suffer. The ‘I SAY ARABI’ music-clip became an overnight success on YouTube and Facebook reaching our audiences in the US as well as in the Arab world. People became media vehicles high-jacking and sharing the clip to their different friends and communities.

Given that language is the tension point of our audience, we opted to create a rap song and music video. We contacted a local musician to collaborate on writing the music. The music was treated using oriental instruments, reminiscent of the great Arabic classics while the tempo and song structure stays true to modern rap. The fusion parodies a conversation between the two generations. The film begins with a dad who enters his teenager’s room. The dad asks his son to join the family in the TV-Room for quality-time. Deceived by his son’s rejection, the dad leaves the room& the teenager falls into a dream-sequence of Arabic rap-battle with his father. The rest is a surreal music-video, with all scenes& interiors reworked in the kids’ subconscious. It ends with the teenager waking-up in the same position as when he fell asleep, as though he just experienced a revelation.

Our campaign reached 13 million people globally. Everyone rushed to DISH’s website resulting in a 75% and 44% increase in Arabic landing page (LP) visitors and daily LP visits respectively. Social media platforms outperformed with a 72% and 461% fan increase on Facebook and YouTube. The video clip gathered 4.3 million views, 56k likes, 14k comments and 64k shares. In addition to radio broadcasts, the song was uploaded to different music streaming platforms such as ‘Soundcloud’ and ‘Anghami’. Real business results were as impressive with a 200% lift in average daily calls from Dish’s Arabic website and a 74% lift in daily searches for branded items. We exceeded client expectations with a 16% lift from projections on launch day for Arabic calls.