2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In the region certain topics are considered inappropriate and are quickly censored according to the regulations of each country, leading to restrictions on what can be aired on TV. Top watched shows are confined to traditional topics that limit viewer’s perspectives and brand’s creativity. Branded content as a discipline is still new to the region, but gaining in popularity. It may have initially been used as a “cost-effective” solution for brands with small budgets, but now bigger brands have understood the advantage of using the right content to connect to people through real and honest story telling. Unfortunately, the approach of many brands to branded content tends to be rather contrived. They cannot easily test their content and tread cautiously, going with safe material. Branded content is considered supporting material to traditional media that cannot stand on its own. MAGGI broke through these norms with a consolidated campaign that intended to disrupt women’s routines.

Results

In many households across the region, a woman’s success is defined within the four walls of her kitchen. As market leaders, we wanted to challenge these norms that have long-since surrounded Arab women. We wanted to help women break out of the shackles of the kitchen and influence change. We listened to them; and uncovered one undeniable truth – women's perspective in the region are changing. New desires, new ambitions, new ways of seeing things and yet, for all their cravings for new experiences, they lacked the confidence to just try. Routine is safe, new takes courage. As MAGGI® we believe that by NOT trying new things, women are missing out on ideas and experiences that can enrich their lives. We needed to give them a powerful motivation to try. We needed a battle-cry. So we gave them MAGGI® Diaries - a cultural and culinary video journey of four ordinary housewives around the Middle East. Through them, our mission was to inspire all women to unlock their potential and make a difference in their lives and the lives of people around them. We invited women to join us. Through an 11-week integrated digital campaign, we chronicled the journey in an online series hosted on a first-of-its-kind immersive YouTube channel. Collaborating with Google, we designed features aimed specifically to draw women to follow and interact with our ambassadors throughout their journey, from any social platform, from the comfort of their homes. We used hashtags unique to each country we visited as well as live chat sessions with our ambassadors where they shared their inspiring experiences & revelations with women from across the region. Through continuous listening & optimization, we realized what type of content our audience resonated with most & adjusted our publishing on MAGGI social platforms accordingly.

We developed MAGGI Diaries to help women explore topics and places they aren’t normally able to. MAGGI Diaries was revealed to our audience through teaser promos across a custom made YouTube channel, Facebook and TV, showing them the captivating new journey four ordinary women were going to embark on with MAGGI. We enticed our audience with sneak peeks of side stories, recipes and personal revelations of our ambassadors on this culinary and cultural journey across the Middle East.

The results exceeded all expectations. We had an outstanding 7% and 6% market share growth in KSA and UAE respectively. MAGGI® YouTube was the 2nd fastest growing FMCG channel in MENA with almost 11 million views and 11,000 new subscribers (an increase of over 10x) and a view-through rate of 39%. Facebook had a 21% engagement rate while the brand saw a 400% growth on Instagram since launch. Twitter had an engagement of 9% with 14,959 new followers. We established MAGGI® as an “informative” and “believable” brand that “inspires me” with tracker scores of 53%, 46% and 58% respectively. (IPSOS Brand Health Tracker) Perhaps the most gratifying result of all was the impact MAGGI Diaries had on consumers in the Middle East. We were approached countless times on our various social platforms by women from all over the region asking to be part in future MAGGI Diaries. MAGGI® Diaries has become a Google MENA and Nestlé global best practice. It is being rolled out across 13 markets over the next 2 years.