2015 Winners & Shortlists

Creative Execution

We brought NESCAFÉ Arabiana to life through “coffee conversations”, stories of animated cups that acted out Real Saudi issues in a light-hearted, humorous way. We touched upon life, marriage, traditions and family in a modern context. Leveraging the flexibility of the online environment, we pushed the boundaries of typical mass media discussions. Coffee conversations carved out a unique identity of NESCAFÉ Arabiana that perfectly fit with the modern interests of our audience and remained true to the brand. The mobile-first videos were seeded live and discovered by Saudis in their newsfeeds on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to drive further conversations.

We successfully managed to increase Ramadan sales of NESCAFÉ instant coffee by 25% and achieved 90% incremental sales for Arabiana vs. average sales since launch. Social media was abuzz with high video viewership, discussions, engagement and sharing of their personalized cups. To date we have achieved more than 3 million paid views and 4 million organic views while increasing our YouTube subscribers by 190% (vs 90% target). With the immense success and popularity of the animated coffee cups, they have become the brand ambassadors for NESCAFÉ Arabiana across all communication channels moving forward.

Arabic coffee consumption increases dramatically during Ramadan. However, NESCAFÉ instant coffee sales in Saudi Arabia dip during this month and Arabiana had only been in the market for 8 months. With Arabiana, we were asking consumers to change their tradition of homemade coffee during the most traditional time of the year. With beverage category competition like Pepsi and Coca Cola, outshouting for the youth’s attention would be a futile plan. We needed to tap into the audience in a way other brands weren’t. We learned that during Ramadan, friends and families spend so much time together that conversations tend to run dry. Consequently, the Saudi youth turn to their phones instead of TV for fun and entertaining content. We introduced NESCAFÉ Arabiana into Ramadan conversations of Saudi youth through stories about Saudi issues, shown in a light hearted approach through animated male and female coffee cups.