Meeza & ABTBWA to turn the Egyptian society into a cashless one
Posted on 2019 Dec,17

In light of Egypt's efforts to develop electronic payment system, Egypt's new national debit card Meeza, rolled out a massive campaign that aims to highlight the positive benefits of going cashless and help the Egyptian society embrace card payments in a big way.


Created by ABTBWA agency, the challenge --shifting the Egyptian society into a cashless society-- was immense. Card users in Egypt are approximately 3.5 million. The target was to reach 20 million users in the first two years.
Changing the habits of a society used to spending in cash for ages is no mean feat. Therefore, the challenge is huge, as the aim is to target the largest market of all times being the society as a whole, penetrate all Egyptian social classes with one campaign and create awareness across Egypt all at once.
The strategy was to first wage 'a war' against cash in general to show that cash is no longer king. And second, the creative team thought to call for a celebrity that is unanimously agreed upon and loved by all Egyptians, the actor and rapper Ahmed Mekky, to star in the commercial.
The campaign got divided into phases with phase one focused on creating an emotional bond with the brand and making people abandon cash and kick the new habit of electronic payment. It was supported by a print campaign aimed at highlighting the benefits of engaging in various cashless transactions and how such a service will change Egyptians lives.
The 2-minute film featuring Mekky is based on an upbeat-quirky Arabic rap song that demonstrates the different historical eras of trading, ending with the new era of payments, all to show that physical money could soon be a thing of the past and Meeza is the solution that will ease life.
The commercial was a huge success reaching 10 million views in only one week.  
Currently ABTBWA Egypt are shooting phase two tackling all the payment methods one by one via six tactical ads.