2014 Winners & Shortlists

SAADAT AL SULTAN

BrandDANONE NUTRICIA EARLY LIFE NUTRITION - BEBELAC
Product/ServiceBABY MILK
EntrantHAVAS WORLDWIDE - MIDDLE EAST Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryBest Fictional Program, Series or Film Where a Client Has Successfully Created a Drama, Comedy or Miniseries Around a Product or Brand
Entrant Company HAVAS WORLDWIDE - MIDDLE EAST Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Contributing Company HAVAS WORLDWIDE - MIDDLE EAST Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production Company METRO MEDIA PRODUCTION Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Campaign

Despite high TV viewership rates in the ME, most brands are shying away from creating relevant content on TV due to the high investment involved. This coincides with rising internet penetration and consumption rates in the region, driving brands to slowly move into creating branded content, less on mass channels such as TV and more on owned platforms online (Youtube, websites). According to Reuters (Nov, 2013), Saudi Arabia is the biggest user of YouTube per capita in the world, and according to analysts Semiocast, it was the eighth most active country on Twitter as of April 2013, accounting for 2.33 percent of all tweets. Similar trends are apparent in key markets across the Middle East (Egypt, Levant), showing fast growth of social media channels. The digital space not only allows more freedom when developing content as brands do not have to abide by rules of TV stations, but also allows more precision in targeting consumers, potentially leading to higher return on investment. Web dramas and series in particular are picking up, as brands see an opportunity to appeal to a younger audience with tailored content and a higher reach. Given this context, branded content is poised to become more popular in the region.

Results

Brief & Objective: To induce trial within key markets (KSA, UAE, and Egypt), Bebelac wanted to create positive buzz and WOM about the brand. Investment in traditional media was not an option due to budget limitations. The brief had therefore to be creative in both message and format: we needed to go viral. Strategy & Relevance: Our strategy for creating viral content relied on three key elements: - Novelty: creating an element of surprise that could vehicle conversation - Emotion: capturing emotions that people can share, for people do not share content, but the feeling that content creates - Identity: creating relevance with wide audience to drive shareability on a mass scale For Bebelac, novelty meant breaking the norm within the baby milk category communication while staying true to brand’s purpose in “nurturing babies’ happiness”. We wanted people to feel happy after interacting with our brand. To this end, we leveraged a growing trend for consuming Syrian-dubbed Turkish soap operas in hopes of striking a chord with a wider audience and created a lighthearted parody of the massively popular “Hareem Al-sultan”. The story capitalized on its well-recognized characters and revolved around the product without over-branding it. Production: Because of restricted budgets, production was executed in-house: Creative Director became a Film Director, copywriter became a screenwriter and graphic designer became a wardrobe artist. Execution: With a minimal media budget, the film was posted on the brand’s YouTube page and supported through YouTube’s pre-roll feature for a short period with minimal seeding in blogs. Target countries comprised of UAE, KSA, and EGYPT. Females with interests in nutrition, mother and child, and parenting were the primary target audience.

With a minimal seeding, the organic growth of the views, in addition to the high levels of engagement, all pointed to high interest in the content. The number of social media shares and the positive nature of comments reinforced the novelty and appeal of the concept. In the results section, more details are provided.

The brand management team was quite happy with the results of the campaign, with global management praising the work and pushing for a higher investment in 2014 to take the idea forward, not only in perhaps creating a series out of the video, but also to support it across touch-points. - With minimal media spend, video exceeded 730K views, 40% of which were organic views*. - Exceptional rate of view duration: 50% of viewers watched 100% of video** - High engagement rate of 26.12% reflecting high interest in content ** - 1530 social media shares; 4529 Facebook actions; 805 positive tweets ** *(Youtube Analytics 20/10/2013) **(Buzzeff, 20/10/2013)

Credits

Name Company Role
Pascale Nader Havas Worldwide Dubai Creative Director
Marcella Donovan Havas Worldwide Dubai Group Account Director
Elyse Khaled Havas Worldwide Dubai Senior Account Manager
Gloria Aboudiwan Havas Worldwide Dubai Senior Tv Producer