2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The situation re Branded entertainment in the Pan Arab region is, like everywhere, very dynamic and rapidly developing. While Branded Content is not yet at the level of the USA and Europe, the Pan Arab region has some of the highest online engagement in the world, with huge You Tube Viewership and social media connectivity, with record numbers of Twitter and Facebook users. The broadcast TV world in contrast is less dynamic. In countries like Saudi Arabia, the largest consumer market in the region, TV has strict censorship and regulations and is quite old fashioned, hence why the majority of young people get their entertainment online. Some of the Pan Arab broadcasters, MBC for instance are becoming more amenable to the idea of Branded entertainment and allow sponsorship of reality and entertainment shows, like Arab Idol and Pepsi Music. As the major target market for this series was Saudi Arabia, client and agency were aware that to create greater impact that the campaign would have to have an online Component.

Results

The agency started with the insight that Arabs have always loved publicly recited eloquent poetry. Historically traditional court poets praised royalty, Today some of the highest rated TV shows are poetry completions and recitals, like Millions poet, They are incredibly popular with audiences old and young. So faced with a rich royal ice cream sundae made of seven delicious layers we thought it would be fun to play with this tradition and try to get poets to describe its taste and how it made them feel. Supporting the campaign selling line of “A taste that’s hard to describe” But we did not choose any two normal poets; At the clients instigation we cast two hip and popular Saudi Comedians, Hisham Faqeeh,(of “no woman no drive” fame) and his popular comedy partner Missisippi Ibrahim. Both of them have their own e-shows and have huge fan followings across the arab world. These guys are internet sensations in Saudi Arabia, where broadcast media is tightly controlled and so online viewing figures are some of the highest in the world. We created a series of nine films for TV and Internet, where our “poets” had to try to describe, surreally how the taste of Al Dahabi made them feel. We built a golden set, and styled the guys conservatively and traditionally. They then played off each other, while all the time eating the product. The films were rolled out on TV initially on multiple pan Arab channels, with social media support and then went online with specially shot “viral” versions, where we developed the concept.

Audience were drawn to the campaign, initially through exposure to the paid for broadcast media where the commercial was launched on May 10th 2014 running on all of the major TV networks in the region. Facebook and Twitter were also used to drive engagement, along with press and outdoor. Simultaneously all of the content including unique internet only executions went live online. The viewing figures rapidly began to mount and as the stars of the film, Hisham and Mississipi have a huge online following in the main target market, Saudi Arabia it was not long till the 2 million views was passed.

The product launch was amongst the most successful ever for Baskin Robbins in the region. The campaign drove the highest brand equity ever, along with exceeding unit targets in Saudi Arabia. Further same store growth and customer count were all very positive. The target audience engaged, the series getting over 2.2 million internet views and over 550 paid insertions on multiple pan Arab TV channels. The series also generated lots of online comment, engagement and conversation. Customer count, same store sales, increase in brand recommendation, brand equity and all KPIs and marketing targets were exceeded.