2015 Winners & Shortlists

Creative Execution

To capture user attention with the innovative handwriting recognition feature, InMobi designed and created a rich media ad unit that re-created the experience of writing in Arabic. The mobile ad unit allowed users to seamlessly experience Samsung technology on their existing smartphones, all without the hassle of downloading mobile applications . Users could customize their personal Arabic messages using different background images, and finally post the images on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, generating social buzz. Overall, the rich media unit was easy and delightful to use, and highlighted an important feature in a new way.

The campaign was a resounding success and smashed all regional benchmarks. Overall expand rate of 1.25%, which crossed the regional benchmark for rich media advertising. The campaign resonated very well with users in Morocco and Egypt, recording the highest expand rate in these two countries. A total of 17,270 interactions, of which 8,635 were unique. This contributed to an overall interaction rate of 20.7% which is over 1.5x times the regional benchmark. A whopping 4 minutes of average dwell time, indicating that users were actively engaged with the creative. With the rich media advertising capabilities offered by InMobi, Samsung was able to create a unique and informative user experience for users in the region, raising interest and driving brand awareness for the Galaxy Note line.

Arabic is a powerful language, uniting 22 countries and 440 million Arabs. However, the complexity of the written language has prevented most tech companies from creating apps, platforms, and content in Arabic. Samsung is an exception, and believes in supporting communication in Arabic in multiple contexts, including education, business, or pleasure. In the Middle East and North Africa, Samsung wanted to emphasize the company’s regional focus and cultural relevance by creating technology that is anchored to the Arabic language and culture. The Samsung Galaxy Note Series does just that, by delivering a solid Arabic handwriting recognition feature. This feature allows consumers to feel comfortable using Arabic with Smart technology and provides them with a greater incentive to create more Arabic content, bringing the written word to digital life. Samsung wanted to generate awareness and raise interest in the new technology.