In order to be perceived as the voice of Arab youth we knew that rather than shouting about our new presence in the region, we had to first listen.

The “We’re Listening’ platform was created to allow for a trusted space to speak freely. By asking personal and cultural questions we aimed to collate a true insight on young modern Arab life.

The campaign was rolled out with a complex filming schedule in 14 cities across the region and through a digital ‘voicemail’ service allowing anonymous contributions to the project.

'Bil Arabi' ('In Arabic') was the a culmination of the ‘We’re Listening’ project. A feature-length film that is a hybrid of digital user-generated content and on-street filming, bringing our audience on a beautiful journey through the Middle East, meeting a diverse cross-section of young Arabs, sharing their hopes, fears and aspirations on screen for the first time ever.

• Implementation:

The final Bil Arabi film was published on YouTube and on VICE’s newly launched Arabic platform - www.vice.com/ar

• Timeline

In its entirety the movie took five months to make. VICE prides itself on its contributors and authenticity, so scouting and using fixers in the relevant cities was paramount to the success of this project. We shot across 14 cities over five weeks and we ran the digital voice message service alongside user-generated social ads. Editing all the co-created content and making the film took 6 weeks. The campaign went live on 22nd November.

• Placement

Bil Arabi was used to launch VICE.com, so we only had two placements, one on YouTube and the primary placement on vice.com/ar

• Scale

Dozens of contributors, multiple countries and hundreds of moving parts – this was a huge undertaking co-ordinated by a small core team, inspired by purpose.

The result was a campaign that encapsulated everything the VICE Arabia brand wanted to stand for. The final film reached 9 million views across our newly launched platforms despite only having a very limited media budget for just five days. Subsequent views were organic, so indicative of how the content resonated with the target audience.

The positive comments on all social platforms were indicative of delivering on our purpose of not just giving a voice to youth, but also pushing the conversation forward, as it sparked strong online debates.

We delivered on our goal of launching VICE Arabia in a way that avoided the risk of being a typical international brand trying to trade off global reputation and the innate level of arrogance that implies. We listened before we spoke... and the result was that we secured a young audience who identified us as the voice they'd been waiting for.