The hero of Egyptian cinema, the Don Juan, superstar Ahmed Fahmy, is completely ridiculed in our series of comedic films for novel brand Touba. A complete and utter disgrace, Fahmy is demeaned into AN ANTI HERO that risks his pride for a silly job that will pay off his accumulating real estate debt!

Like most ANTI HERO's the audience is left loving our destroyed Fahmy, sympathizing with the problem we all face as Egyptians struggling in our macro economy. Subtle, black humor, and the creative usage of a great actor makes this campaign relevant for this category.

If you want to get married in Egypt you need a few things; a bride, a job, and an apartment...an owned apartment...none of this silly renting. A suitor is only considered and judged based on his housing and let's just say if you intend on settling with an Egyptian man's daughter in a rented flat, you'll be flat out on the streets with a big rejection. Mortgage? Egypt doesn't offer licenses for mortgage companies, instead you end up taking a ridiculously expensive bank loan.

You want your girl, buy her a home, it's that simple and life-threatening! Because to buy a home you need a couple of million pounds, and to afford these millions you need to tie yourself down to a decade of installments; 8-10 years minimum, monthly, stable, predetermined payments. If you fail to pay one installment, straight to jail you go! (we weren't kidding about "life-threatening"). The installment plan owns you until you're relieved of the pressure 10 years down the line. The prison cell of a free man!

Recently in Egypt, the problem has escalated to be larger than Egyptian youth struggling to settle down. With a devaluating currency, real estate has become the only way to hedge losses from hyperinflation, and so every Egyptian now: man, woman, old, young is turning to these installment schemes to secure their money. Decades of installments to preserve your living standard. Egypt's population = prisoners to their installments!

Touba is the first of its kind financial app that allows Egyptians to invest in partial real estate, to own shares and grow their ownership at their own pace and convenience.

Because it's still a very novel idea in Egypt and has NO competition at all, this brief was out to

A. generate awareness and build consideration through clearly showcasing how Touba directly tackles a serious problem for Egypt's mass population.

B. educate buyers on the simplicity of the idea and how you end up buying your home with flexibility and financial freedom.

Ever wonder why that guy bends over backwards for his client?

Or why that girl is such a kiss as* to her boss?

Or why that mega A star celebrity is making a complete mockery of himself in that silly cereal ad?

Any Egyptian would answer all the above questions with the same answer.

"It's understandable...they've got installments to pay!"

AHHH...THE THINGS WE DO FOR DEBT! the basis of our creative idea, the things we compromise on, accept for ourselves and endure in order to pay off the frightening installment cheque.

Our creative idea turns this truth around. Don't let installments control you...you control your payments. A claim only Touba can make, a solution only Touba can offer.

The campaign works on highlighting the problem/insight that the audience will automatically relate to, allowing for a simple reveal of the solution at the end.

It's obvious why a novel brand like Touba would need a celebrity endorser. We needed to build awareness and recognition fast and superstar Ahmed Fahmy made sense; loved by millions.

But our approach wasn't to feature the Don Juan of Egyptian cinema as a hero that had everything under control with the help of Touba.

Instead our strategy was to create through Ahmed Fahmy an anti hero, one that normal Egyptians could relate to, one that felt real. For this reason, Fahmy in our campaign appeared as himself, the Egyptian actor who like everyone else had debts to pay, and like everyone else accepted compromising and demeaning situations in order to pay these debt off. The strategy was to naturally exaggerate and create through Fahmy an example or a personification of our insight...the man controlled by installments.

Getting Fahmy to accept this role, and becoming our loved and hilarious anti

Our campaign launched with the launch of the Touba app itself. A fresh new idea, brand, logo and identity along with a new tonality that was bold and daring.

With proper investment on TV with over 1000 spots for the duration of the campaign, our series of TV spots disrupted the market through creating the right conversation and intrigue around or product, while entertaining our viewers.

Within a month of launching the campaign, our brand tracker confirmed a whopping 62% of respondents recognized this tiny, extremely young brand! With barely any work done yet, the brand managed to get the attention it deserved.

And this recognition paid off in sales as well:

Madinet Masr, the real estate giant and owner of brand innovation, Touba, sold real estate worth 34 Billion Egyptian Pounds in 2023.

Of these 34 Billion, a new phase launch that was the FIRST to be offered on the Touba app equated 616M EGP.

Touba was actually used to buy 85% of this new launch phase! Accounting to 558M EGP from the offered 616M.