Woohoo! Let's all welcome real-time marketing to Lebanon, because it's officially a thing. Previously, few brands have exploited current events and scandals for their own campaign - Almaza notably being one of them.


The 'scandal' at-hand is Jackie Chamoun, the Lebanese alpine skier whose 3-year-old nudes have resurfaced just in time for her competition at the Olympics at Sochi - inevitably causing a stir in this gossipy village of a country. A #stripforjackie hashtag trended on social networks, with brazen supporters going nude for her cause.

Real-time marketing has been around for a long time overseas. For a successful real-time campaign, you need a creative team on hand that's willing to come up with something on-the-fly, off-working hours.

I'm a big fan of real-time because of its assured relevance. It's sometimes costlier than the traditional campaign, but it sure is worth it. Consumers love relevance; the brand comes off as alive, witty - making one hell of an impression.

In the U.S., brands like Oreo have had repeated success using real-time.

When the royal baby was born last year, the entire advertising sector of the UK took advantage. To be fair, they had some nine months to prepare, but still - relevance, relevance, relevance!

The #stripforjackie hashtag has unintentionally paved the way for nation-wide conversation.
Lebanese agencies have officially jumped on the bandwagon!

Arabic translates to "don't get me out of my clothes!".

One of my absolute favorites, especially since it follows VW's worldwide advertising style. The slogan is short and sweet.

Skullcandy may have not stripped for Jackie, but it's a fresh breath of air focusing on the actual goal of the Olympics instead.

Wineries generally go for traditional methods of advertising, and understandably-so, so I was shocked when Riachi stripped for Jackie.

Route 68 goes for linguistic word-play instead, standing out from the rest.

Way to change the trending hashtag, Exotica #buzzkills. Still - clean and crisp execution, as expected.

Maybe the bottle-label thing is becoming a bit repetitive, but the copywriting in this one is pretty darn cute (Arabic translates to "I, too, want to get naked for Jackie").

Other brands (..and startups, bloggers, little boutiques, etc.) have also stripped for Jackie, but I've only included the creative and well-executed ones in here.

Create, appreciate,