2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

As part of the British Council’s mission in bridging the gap between cultures, they introduced English conversation courses in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They wanted to promote these courses that focused on pronunciation and speaking skills to Arabic native speakers who find it difficult to differentiate between the letters B and P when they start learning English. As such, they distributed the “No Broblem” kit, which featured a self-learning technique on how to pronounce the B and P accurately. The “No Broblem” kit was a simple and cost effective demonstration of the British Council’s understanding of the regional linguistic needs and problems.

The Brief

Promote the newly introduced English conversation courses by the British Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As the courses focus on pronunciation and speaking skills, they wanted the communication to demonstrate the British Council’s understanding of the region’s linguistic needs and problems and at the same time encourage Arabic native speakers to enroll.

How the final design was conceived

The design process began with the creation of a logo that represented the problem addressed in the Kit, which was about the letters B and P. The logo looked like a merged B and P. The dots used in the uncommon area were inspired by the dots in the British Council logo. In accordance to the guideline, the color Green is always used for the collaterals of the English conversation courses. The Kit included a DL-size leaflet and a practice sheet. The leaflet explained the problem and the 3-step solution. The thickness of the practice sheet was meticulously chosen and holding marks were placed to ensure success of the design.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The self-learning practice sheet offered a simple and ‘live’ experience of the services offered by the British Council’s English conversational courses. On top of this, it clearly demonstrated the British Council’s understanding of the region’s linguistic needs and problems. The kit also achieved: (1) 35% more enrollments than the projected target. As a result, an additional class was run to accommodate the extra students (2) The self-learning technique video was viewed more than 54,000 times in just one week (3) Impressions reached 297,726 in one week (4) The idea was highly appreciated by Arabic native speakers and English speakers alike as it addresses a regional linguistic problem (5) The conversation courses will be launched in other Saudi cities (6) The kit also became a promotional B2B tool (7) Positive social media comments with light-hearted and deliberate misuse of the letters B and P.