2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

All eyes in Saudi were on the world cup, yet the absence of the Saudi team limited the emotional involvement of the viewers and neglected consumer engagement. Saudi brands attempted to capitalize on their audience’s world cup fever through the conventional commercial approach such as TV spots and the accustomed world cup promotions that take place across the entire region, resulting in the clutter of all conventional media with the in-distinctive stagnant world cup communication. Eyeing the media clutter, we turned to Saudi Arabia’s number 1 go to medium for entertainment for the youth; YouTube, with over 90 million views each day.

Results

Our big idea consisted of introducing Youssef – a Saudi YouTube sensation, all-round hilarious and an aspiring “Saudi Ronaldo” – during the World Cup period.” To get Saudi back into the World Cup game, we sent the comedian to Brazil with a go-pro and a one-man camera crew to get in on all the football action. From interacting with fans, opening a one-man tea stall and finding his way across the town, to giving Brazil a crash course in Saudi Arabian fashion and showing off his football skills, Youssef brought a unique Saudi Arabian flavour to the World Cup. The quirky videos and their distinct Saudi-ness immediately resonated with fans, generating millions of Likes, Shares and Comments, in just a few days. As the videos kept making an appearance on the digital landscape, Saudis started interacting with Youssef, and in-turn kicked off an online conversation with Mobily at the center of one of the world’s biggest events.

- Once we had the quirky and hilarious videos, we needed to ensure Saudis were viewing them. We partnered with Saudi social influencers to help make the videos go viral. They wrote articles and shared the video links with their followers. We also seeded the videos on popular social media, focusing on platforms where videos can easily be shared. - Finally we used pre-roll ads and Google search, knowing Saudis would be looking for more of Youssef.

The brand integration was so subtle, yet effective and compelling that it managed to take the Saudi market by storm during the world cup. All the metrics achieved were phenomenal. Please note the below points: - 14 vids with a combined viewership of 22.1 million. - Channel subs from 10k on June 12 to 225k – in same period STC increased from 70k – 86k. - 14 vids with more than 1 million views. We had none before June 12. - Heavy earned coverage on TV and earned press for the show and total mentions on social media 16 million, with 96% positive; 375k likes on Youtube (96% approval rate). - Total views from 7m on June 12 to 38m; the most viewed channel in KSA in July. - Mobily’s Youtube channel is #1 among brands in KSA; #63 among brands globally, and #1 among telecom brand globally.