2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

There are 28 letters in Arabic and none of them represents the letter P. The closest to it is a letter that sounds like B. This is the reason why Arabic native speakers find it difficult to differentiate between these two letters when they begin learning English. Tapping on this fact, the “No Broblem” kit was distributed by The British Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to promote its newly introduced English conversation courses that focused on pronunciation and speaking skills. The kit featured a self-learning technique on how to pronounce these two letters accurately.

Results and Effectiveness

(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.

Creative Execution

The main media channel for this campaign was “No Broblem” kit. Support was provided via a video uploaded on YouTube. The kit offered the targeted audience a ‘live’ experience with a self-learning technique using a practice sheet while YouTube was chosen as a media platform to spread the idea of the simple solution as Saudi Arabia has the region’s highest penetration rate.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The primary target audience was the British Council’s Arabic native speaking student-base (Beginners and Pre-intermediate levels of English) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As the campaign wanted to address one of the region’s linguistic problems and provide a solution for it, the self-learning technique was best shown in the form of a kit with a practice sheet as well as explained in a YouTube video which is accessible to all.