2010 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Chevrolet gained 12 points on opinion & consideration and improved purchase intent by a remarkable 8 points. Perceptions in terms of trustworthiness increased by 10 points & value for money by 5 points Six weeks later, car sales increased by 27%; after 3 months total sales increased by 37%. 27,500+ followers on facebook/twitter; with 6,286 interactions, 2,747 likes and 2,834 individual comments. Brand ambassadors mushroomed, replying to negative posts, sharing their experiences. Our site attracted over 200,000 users from across the Middle East. Mobile Application: 2,395 dowloads in 1 week (Record 10.3% CTR) Web TV series had 56,000 viewers in 2 weeks & millions who saw the promos on TV.

Creative Execution

Our creative solution was to turn these two characters into digital personas that people can befriend. Once part of people’s inner circle, H&O became the catalysts of an open platform where people could debate, exchange opinions and help H&O on their mission to discover more about Chevrolet. The social space was the perfect platform; After their appearance on TV, people started adding them on Facebook and twitter. H&O became a movement and they were soon delegating missions, giving out rewards and engaging all their friends and followers in the quest for more knowledge about Chevrolet. The H&O page on Facebook became a brand forum for Chevrolet where people debated and shared experiences with the brand. H&O were caught on CCTV at a Chevrolet showroom, and a first-in-the-region WebTV series was produced and broadcasted through the leading TV stations VoD platform (MBC.Net/HO) over 8-weeks.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Despite being the second largest brand in the region, Chevrolet still lags on being a “fun loving” brand, therefore scores low on consideration among youth. Youth are split between strong believing advocates and Skeptics with preconceived notions. When it comes to cars, most Arab men consider themselves experts. They all think they know where to get the best deal, how reliable each brand is, issues with each car, etc.; even though in most cases, it is probably something they overheard from friends or read somewhere. People trust people, not brands. Chevrolet’s campaign was based on two Japanese spies (Hiroshi & Osamu – H&O) who were sent to the Middle East to discover why Chevrolet was so successful. Through these characters our strategy was to create open platforms that allow people to debate Chevrolet and show off their expertise when it comes to car knowledge.