2010 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Our challenge was to launch W995 new mobile phone during Ramadan & to showcase its movie playing capabilities. We needed to achieve sales targets across MENA in a recession-hit region, where consumers were not replacing their phones as often as they used to. We needed to get existing customers to upgrade their existing phones, and engage new customers into the brand. The strategy was to partner with Bab Al Hara program (leading Ramadan program aired on MBC 1). We created a special BAH W995 phone edition, which came pre-loaded with content: entire season 3 of BAH, ringtones, games & wallpapers.

Creative Execution

Insight & Research showed that Bab Al Hara (BAH) is one of the Top 3 Ramadan TV programs watched in the region.Has a religious following across all age groups.BAH is aired only once a year on MBC1 during the 4 weeks of Ramadan & generates an average rating of 25. By partnering with BAH & creating BAH content phones,Sony Ericsson was tapping into a new target audience that is fanatic about BAH,gaining Top of Mind awareness.At the same time, it was showcasing it's movie playing capabilities, since the pre-loaded content would be watched & experienced on the phone itself.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

Special packaging for W995 BAH phone created.Pushed this unique never-done-before partnership & exclusive content available.Drove awareness, visibility & sales at store level.Promoted heavily instore. Integrated TV promo(showcasing W995 & content available)created with MBC1.Aired across MBC1 & four MBC channels to create awareness & drive sales.Integrated promo was aired on KSA & UAE radio-stations,and in UAE cinemas. Sponsorship of BAH dedicated microsite & Video-On-Demand site done to further push the partnership.Viewers saw full episodes of BAH Season4 two-three days after TV airing.Complete W995 branding,including W995 TVC playing before & after each episode(which consumer couldnt forward!!). Campaign supported across Print,Online & Outdoor.

Results

- Over 60% of the target audience was reached with the TV Integrated Promo!! - Generated over 600 million TV impressions across 7 markets in MENA!! All this at approximately 50% lower cost-per-thousand vs. Sony Ericsson’s overall average!!! - TV, Radio & Online exposure of this activation was worth over $12million - ONLINE: 11.4 million impressions delivered on BAH microsite!! On Video on Demand site, 3.8 million views of the integrated promo!! CTR on banner was 7.44% - But most importantly, sales targets were achieved in 2 months!