2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Persil Black, a detergent specialized in washing and caring for the black Abayas (national attire) of women in the GCC, wanted to further build affinity between Emirati women and Persil Black. We realised that to build affinity with Emirati women we needed to fuel their quest towards empowerment with a daring initiative with Persil Black as the enabler.Through collaboration between a musical instrument maker and a sound engineer we transformed the Persil bottle into a real guitar and brought a woman to sing the UAE’s national anthem while playing the Persil bottle guitar. We wanted this to be a strong symbol of national resonance from the very core of the brand and with the powerful voice of a woman. Across 3 days, the video garnered 596,000 views, 2,600,000 ad exposures, and over 19% view through rate on the video exceeding both industry and brand benchmarks. Considering how all platforms are moving towards limiting organic reach, we managed to get 16% organic views, also exceeding industry norms. Finally, we managed to reach the heart and minds of our consumers with the overwhelming response of more than 75,000 engagements. We created a beautiful piece of content to celebrate the women of the UAE, and in return they thanked Persil Abaya Shampoo for acknowledging them and that advocacy alone was more powerful than any media metrics could demonstrate.

The Brief

Persil Black, a detergent specialized in washing &caring for the Abayas of women in GCC, wanted to further build affinity with Emirati women. It championed an inspiring Abaya fashion movement that rallied women around the brand &propelled the ambitions of many aspiring Abaya designers. This fashion movement enabled Persil Black to dominate the specialized Abaya detergent segment. Other similar black fabric brands with stronger equity &deeper heritage in region, constantly wanted to steal women’s hearts away from a brand that was somehow perceived as a foreigner. The brand needed to do more to ingrain itself in culture &grow its affinity

Execution

The idea was hiding in the obvious. It was there, within the curves of the Persil Black bottle itself. Through collaboration between a musical instrument maker and a sound engineer we transformed the Persil bottle into a real playing guitar and brought a veiled woman to sing the UAE’s national anthem while playing it on the Persil bottle guitar. It was extremely challenging to arrive at the right resonance of the Persil bottle and somehow match the resonance of a wooden guitar box. We wanted this to be a strong symbol of national resonance from the very core of the brand itself and the result was a beautiful and emotional yet powerful rendition of the UAE’s national anthem. The performance took the form of an online video that was released 2 days before the national day.

The results truly proved the power of emotional and relevant communication. Across 3 days, the video garnered 569,000 views, 2,600,000 ad exposures, and over 19% view through rate on the video exceeding both industry and brand benchmarks. Considering how all platforms are moving towards limiting organic reach, we managed to get 16% organic views, also exceeding industry norms. Finally, we managed to reach the heart and minds of our consumers with the overwhelming response of more than 75,000 engagements including comments, likes and shares. We created a beautiful piece of content to celebrate the women of the UAE, and in return they thanked Persil Abaya Shampoo for acknowledging them and that advocacy alone was more powerful than any media metrics could demonstrate.

The Strategy

UAE ranks as the number 1 nation when it comes to women empowerment in the region &Arab world. Women hold 2/3rd of public sector positions &over 30% are in senior decision-making roles. They have an unbeatable sense of pride and patriotism towards their country & are increasingly assuming more prominent roles in sectors usually thought to be only worthy of men, such as the military & government responsibilities. Although women were becoming more assertive about their role &the potential they could unlock within the UAE, there were still a lot of cultural sensitivities towards what veiled woman could/couldnt do in society. We realised to further build affinity with Emirati women, Persil needed to fuel their quest towards empowerment while remaining respectful to their values &celebrating the national day of the UAE’s was a perfect opportunity for the brand to acknowledge the UAE women with an ode to their pride &ambitions