2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Entertainment programming on television and radio is subject to government censorship and control in Saudi Arabia, this includes all branded content of any kind. In the digital realm, although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represents one of the largest digital markets in the Middle East, it is still considered one of the top 10 enemies of the internet with over 400,000 pages blocked.

Results

In the past three years Sprite has been so quiet in the market to the point of non-existence. We were tasked to bring it back to life, in full force as a no bullshit brand – in the heavily censored KSA. We did that through comedy, by creating a platform that’s as refreshingly honest as our brand. Sprite Minalakhir was born, with a 5-minute video series taking an honest spin on life. These videos were broadcasted on YouTube, the Minalakhir-website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. The initial reaction was filled with skepticism from viewers who were unprepared for our brutal honesty. But we turned things around to our advantage in record time.

Once Minalakhir was launched, the young Saudis were quickly following our series after relating to the refreshing honest perspective to their daily social struggles and life. And because Saudis feel more comfortable expressing themselves online where restrictions are decreased, they were encouraged to contribute in discussions on our Facebook page, Twitter account, and Minalakhir website. The introduction of customized competitions with every episode proved to be a big success. Tailored questions were designed to encourage viewers to engage and express themselves around a certain topic, or simply have fun by interacting with the video to find hidden prizes.

Although the campaign received harsh criticism in the first few weeks, within a period of only 8 weeks, we managed to turn most haters into followers. We grew from only 53 fans on our Facebook page at the beginning of the campaign to around 400,000 Active fans, with over 6,000 participations in the competitions alone. The show went from almost getting canceled, to hitting over 5.5 million views… and counting. The Sprite brand that had only 2% annual sales growth in KSA jumped to an incredible 15% growth during the first half of the campaign! And most importantly, we created a self-expression movement around the Saudi youth, encouraging them to say things the way they are.