2015 Winners & Shortlists

A GERMAN FOR EVERY SAUDI

BrandVW - VOLKSWAGEN
Product/ServiceAUTOMOTIVE
EntrantJ. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
CategoryConsumer Products
Entrant Company J. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Advertising Agency J. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

The Brief

In Saudi VW scores low on awareness,consideration and suffers from negativeperception. It was no surprise that after six months(with an annual sales target of 1700 cars)there was 1200 vehicles left in stock.VW decided to launch a liquidation offer on all 2014 models. How could we create demand for these 1200vehicles? In Saudi a German label is normally associated with quality and VW was offering a discount on all their cars.From there came our idea:A German car for every Saudi. Sounds straightforward?not when you consider that the equivalent short Arabic phrase can be understood as a German woman for every Saudi.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We launched a teaser campaign that kept it open to interpretation and very quickly, it captured the imagination: consumers turned it into a hashtag. It didn't take long for it to explode: people started toying with our message, then celebrities joined in. Soon women were asking for a German man for every Saudi girl. Huge exposure online,including well-known YouTube comedy shows with millions of subscribers, further fanned the flames. So much so that we had to pull the plug on the teaser and move swiftly to the revealer campaign, where the cars’ features were brought into our play on words

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

VW received 1696 test drive requests driving significant traffic into the showrooms compared to the previous maximum of 10 test drives per month.In the one and a half month span of the promotional 1200 cars were sold compared to the past six months in which only 500 cars were sold The campaign created a twitter frenzy with people turning our teaser“a German(woman) for every Saudi”into a hashtag,Tweets within the 1st 12 hours after the teaser launch reached 5,403;the number of images posted reached 118,Total potential impressions 28,997,011 and total potential reach14,078,064 Putting VW at the heart of a nationwide conversation

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

A regular price promotion campaign would have hurt the brand even more, and in a cluttered automotive category, we had to take an approach that would make the brand itself more desirable, more talked about. Our campaign idea, gave us an entertaining message and territory to communicate that not only seamlessly brought together the category, brand, and cultural consumer insights but was sure to disrupt the category and drive intrigue in a conservative country where men and women are segregated and dating forbidden

Credits

Name Company Role
Chafic Haddad J.walter Thompson Executive Creative Director
Gilbert Abdallah J.walter Thompson Associate Creative Director
Ghassan Al Ghaddaf J.walter Thompson Head Of Arabic Copywriting
Ezzeddine Yassine J.walter Thompson Art Director
Haifa Alrasheed J.walter Thompson Copywriter
Dana Al Kutoubi J.walter Thompson Planning Director
Alaa Abu Hammeen J.walter Thompson Associate Business Director
Mazen El Hilwee J.walter Thompson Account Manager
Adel Baraja VW Markeing/Public Relations Director