2015 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The videos instantly became a hit on Mobily’s YouTube channel, and grew to become one of the brand’s most successful campaigns: - Combined, the videos generated over 22 million views, 1,100% above our goal of 2 million - View through rates reach as high as 46% (YouTube’s global benchmark is 19%) - Subscribers to Mobily’s YouTube channel increased from 10,000 to 225,000, making it the most subscribed telecom channel in the world and #1 channel among brands in KSA - The videos earned heavy coverage on local TV and press with 16 million mentions, fueling even more positive social response

Creative Execution

We turned to Youssef, a rising comedic Saudi YouTube sensation and aspiring “Saudi Ronaldo”, and sent him to Brazil with a GoPro camera and one-man camera crew to document his World Cup journey. Youssef was filmed taking to the streets of Brazil to interact with World Cup fans from around the world, while schooling them in a hilarious way about Saudi Arabia, its culture, foods, and fashion, while also showing off his football skills. 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.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Saudi Arabia has qualified for the World Cup four consecutive times since its debut in 1994, making it one of the top Arab countries in terms of participation. Unfortunately, 2014 was not a qualifying year for the Kingdom. All eyes in Saudi Arabia would be on the 2014 World Cup, yet the absence of the Saudi team limited the emotional involvement of viewers and neglected consumer engagement. If there’s one thing Saudis are known for, apart from their love of football of course, is their love of YouTube. With over 90 million views, Saudi Arabia has among the highest view rates in the world and is ranked #1 when it comes to mobile YouTube views. Mobily saw this as their big opportunity. What if we could combine Saudis’ love of football and their love of YouTube to give them a sense of a 5th Participation in the FIFA World Cup?