2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

With no detailed data or monitoring of Branded Entertainment within the Middle-East, forecasting or providing an accurate summary of the market is somewhat difficult. However, from our own research (both brand & audiences) and of course BE campaigns, we’ve seen that there is a real appetite for creating and consuming content in the region. In terms of the restrictions, the rules around what can and can’t be done by brands vary significantly around the region such as KSA, but in many markets there is a lack of regulation (or governing body) that means a brands presence can be easily placed, associated or integrated within a piece of content. However, topics, themes and even situations must be taken into consideration when planning and producing any piece of Branded Content. These includes • The clothing and appearance of females • The proximity between female & male presenters • The treatment of culturally sensitive topics such as marriage and national dress • The use and discussion of Religion • The exclusion of any subject matter relating to sex & alcohol in KSA

Results

For three years Persil Abaya Shampoo has conquered the liquid detergent category through ‘Arwa3 Abaya’ – an amateur design initiative for Arabic women to showcase their enthusiasm for Abaya fashion on national TV. However, as a branded integration, there was little flexibility in influencing content decisions, meaning that although rational product benefits were being communicated, we weren’t making emotional connections. Research told us Arab-women are fixated with TV reality shows because of the emotive cords struck from watching contestants experience emotional roller-coasters. Therefore, we had to draw inspiration from these programmes and inject elements of melodrama. Our idea was to go it alone, produce our own programming and move Arwa3 Abaya from ‘Educational Editorial’ to ‘Emotional Entertainment’. The Execution As with any TV reality format, contestant casting is essential for compelling viewing, particularly when they are amateur Abaya designers. With this in mind, famous Emirati designer Amal Murad hand-picked seven of the regions most talented amateurs from the GCC to compete in a series of grueling challenges based around particular looks or seasons – all designed to push them to their limits. Monitoring their every move were Swarsovski’s Jeanine Nashef, Sayidaty’s Lina Hourani, TV royalty Loujain Omran and of course Amal Murad. After 9 weekly episodes, one designer, Matiha Al-Mansour had her life changed forever winning a retail space in luxury store Saks 5th Avenue to market her collection. In parallel, we also recognized industry professionals by creating the ‘Arwa3 Abaya Awards’- acting as the backdrop for the finale. Multiple initiatives were used to bring the series to life including social media, online display, TVC’s, print, outdoor, mobile and sampling/POS.

Through ‘Arwa3 Abaya’, we provided our target audience with entertaining content that was both compelling and relevant. This was achieved by a thorough understanding of our target audience and unearthing key insights that were used to form the basis of our strategy and subsequent idea. Full details of these insights, along with the challenge and creative execution can all be found in the next section.

By adopting an AFP approach (the first ever used within MBC1’s Morning Show), we’ve provided women with real entertainment that’s compelling, original and relevant. 69% of viewers agree they ‘feel closer’ to Persil, compared with 12 months ago whilst associations of Persil as ‘an expert in Abaya fashion’ up 23%. Each episode reached 500,000 women and online catch-ups garnered 12 months of viewing minutes, which in turn grew Facebook fans by 26%. Finally, from a business perspective, household penetration rose to 9% (record high), whilst share of specialist black detergents grew by 5% and total liquid-detergents by 4%. Sources: Henkel, Synovate data, Nielsen data, Ipsos, OMG Social Media