Riviera Prive Beach & Lounge: BE SEEN

Credits & Description:

Category: Hospitality/Leisure
Advertiser: THE CRYSTAL GROUP
Product/Service: RIVIERA PRIVÉ
Agency: RÉPUBLIQUE BEIRUT
Creative Director: Fadi Mroue (République Beirut)
Graphic Designer: Nassim Hallab (République Beirut)
Copywriter: Fadi Mroue (République Beirut)
Digital Art Director: Wissam Debs (République Beirut)
Media placement: Enviromental Branding - Bars, Nightclubs - June 1, 2011
Describe the brief from the client
Summer’s in Beirut are all about the beach. The market is very competitive and saturated. Riviera Privé was opening in the Riviera Hotel and wanted to stand out among the crowd.
Describe the challenges and key objectives
We needed to reach the crème de la crème of Beirut, without using mass media – as that would defeat the concept of Privé. We needed to design our own media, so we chose the trendiest restaurants and clubs in the city, and invaded their most intimate place: the bathrooms.
Describe how you arrived at the final design
It is no secret that the Lebanese love to hit the beach to 'see and be seen'. People dress in their fanciest swimsuits, with toned bodies, to impress and meet. Playing on this, we stuck vinyl stickers of faces with sunglasses on bathroom mirrors in various trendy locations across the city. The glasses were cut-out to give the impression of a reflection, which gave the idea that they were being stared at by somebody. The copy read 'Be seen'.
Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
Riviera Privé did eventually become the place to be in the Summer of 2011, but the campaign lasted a lot longer than that. The installation went viral, and was seen by millions online.
It was featured, published and shared in over 15 different languages, on a variety of different leading blogs, sites and magazines, including The Huffington Post, Glamour Magazine and The Cool Hunter.
Our aim was to put Riviera Privé on the Beirut map. Instead it ended up on the world map.