The Campaign
In a region where branded content is a newly emerging industry, up against traditional advertising, it is often deemed unnecessary, and unreliable. The idea of selling via story telling, which branded content delivers on best, remains a force on the rise in our region. This is mainly due to two reasons; first, the challenge presented when shifting the paradigm of what effective communication is for funders/clients. Trying to convince a client that a captivating narrative has more long-term value for a brand, versus plastering a logo on the screen, remains a struggle. Reasons varying from budgets, and traditional media & KPI’s set. And second, the evolution of our Middle-Eastern audience, who can no longer be defined as passive receptors of information, particularly in the form of traditional advertising. Rather, they are assuming the role of participants in control. They decide what to consume. They decide what entertains, inspires and moves them! Today’s Arabic skeptic will embrace relevant and honest brands, ones that appear to understand them, and add value to their lives.
The objective therefor became clear; to create and deliver content that has value and regional relevance at the heart of its entertainment. Marrying both creates a natural environment in which our brand can unobtrusively flourish within.
Results
During Eid ticket prices increase at the rate of 45-85%, often resulting in a large amount of frustration for our consumers, much of which ends up vented through Jazeera Airways Social Platforms.
We needed to find a way to neutralize the negativity on our pages during this specific period.
We realised that media habits change during Ramadan, whereby TV viewing hours increase by 15% with most people spending more time at home and watching their favorite Ramadan series.
Social Listening proved, that a large amount of the also increasing traffic on social media, revolves around conversations related to those popular Ramadan series.
We wanted to capitalize on this social media trend and link Jazeera Airways to this highly discussed topic during this period.
We came up with the idea to create a competition that would invoke the spirit of Ramadan and effectively channel social media conversation.
We engaged with Kuwaiti talent Mohammed Al Sarraf, a personality who’s not only highly active on social media but also admired in Kuwaiti society for his instrument playing and song writing skills.
We created 15 second teaser videos that were posted on social media platforms. Al Sarraf would play the intro to a song from a popular Ramadan TV series watched by millions, and we’d ask our audience to guess which hit show it came from, giving them the chance to win a ticket with Jazeera Airways to any of our destinations.
The competition was called “Hear it. Guess it. Win it.”
One of the two main points our audience were interactive with this specific content was that it was relevant to their daily routine in Ramadan, and it gave them the chance to test their knowledge when it comes to the local and regional T.V. shows aired in Ramadan. They were also interactive with the content because they were familiar with the IG celebrity Mohammad Al Sarraf and his fans were interested to know what he was up to next.
A large audience enthralled with the task of trying to guess the song Al Sarraf is playing, and starting a positive conversation on Jazeera’s social media platforms.
Engagement with our posts increased to 75% vs. 27% the year before and we managed to drop negative conversations on our pages by 99%.
Links
Additional URL