2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Sprite has been virtually non-existent in the Middle East for three years. We were tasked to bring it to life, along with its core value message of being a refreshingly honest brand that doesn’t promote bullshit. Our strategy was to encourage young Saudis to adopt this kind of mindset in their lifestyle, and introduce Sprite as a refreshing soft drink, that inspires you to be true to yourself. Our audience was not familiar with the brand, and has never been exposed to this bold tone of voice, especially in Saudi Arabia, where every kind of content is constantly filtered.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

With the task to bring Sprite to life in the heavily censored KSA, we created an online interactive platform for Saudi self-expression. To find the right Saudi insights and talents, we collaborated with “Sa7i”, a daring YouTube channel. Not only were we spreading the refreshing truth on our special edition Sprite cans around KSA, but to activate our campaign we launched a 5-minute online video series taking an honest spin on life. We aired on our YouTube channel, Minalakhir-website, Facebook, and Twitter account. With UM Mena, we launched a media campaign through banners, interactive ads, and page takeovers.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Although the campaign received harsh criticism in the first few weeks, in a period of only 8 weeks, we turned most haters into followers. We grew from only 53 fans Facebook to around 400,000 active fans, with over 6,000 participations in the competitions. The show went from almost getting canceled, to hitting over 5.5 million views… and counting. Annual sales growth of 2% 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 Saudi youth, encouraging them to say things the way they are.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Our young target audience spends a daily average of 15 hours on the internet. So we used YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, as pillars for our direct communication with Saudis. But that wasn’t the only reason. Sprite was actually bold enough to do something that was never done before in this region, being completely honest and blunt where everyone is restraining opinions. That’s why these channels were, for us, the best medium for activation, with minimal content filtering, and maximum direct, Saudi self-expression. And to keep the discussions enjoyable, we used comedy to send refreshingly honest fun messages.