2016 Winners & Shortlists

1ST BRANDED ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT HUB

Gold

Case Film

Presentation Image

BrandSAUDI TELECOM COMPANY - STC
Product/ServiceBROADBAND
EntrantJ. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
CategoryLaunch or Re-Launch
Entrant Company J. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Advertising Agency J. WALTER THOMPSON RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Media Agency STARCOM MEDIAVEST GROUP Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
Production Company DREAMBOX FILMS Beirut, LEBANON
Production Company 2 DOPRAVO Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA

The Campaign

Not known for Broadband, STC was behind in terms of market share due to fragmented tactical communication across the Broadband portfolios of its various Business units. As such, STC developed a new communication platform for its Broadband offering which addresses the Youth target audience. The new platform’s positioning responded to young people’s need to discover their purpose, express themselves and pursue aspirations. “Don’t let anything stand in your way”, the creative idea, was an open invitation to the Broadband generation that builds on this sense of discovery and achievement, as STC’s Broadband will go the extra mile to prevent anything from getting in the way of their Education, Entertainment, Fun, Business etc… To bring this creative idea to life and still be relevant to our target audience, we created an online Hub “LaYwagif” (first of its kind in the region), on which we posted various sitcom-like series, each with several episodes and seasons – featuring different characters and injecting subliminal messages about STC’s Products and Services, while above all being engaging and entertaining.

The Brief

STC needed to connect with young Saudis, create an umbrella platform to differentiate STC Broadband from the competition, and make STC a point of reference. The challenge was to anchor an emotional benefit via this platform, enhancing STC’s image scores among the youth and ultimately lead to an increase in market share.

Execution

Whenever a new episode was launched on the portal, a campaign was developed to draw our audience to the content. Each began with a teaser for the episode, driving attention to STC’s destination entertainment site “LaYwagif”, especially given that Saudi YouTube stars were being featured. Simultaneously, a targeted online campaign drove additional traffic and created hype around the episode. YouTube pre-rolls supported with online and social media ads, driving traffic to the episode’s on-site page. TV, print & outdoor were used to help build awareness and equity, featuring clips from the show and highlighting its key messages. The wide variety of shows on the Hub allowed STC to host a number of competitions designed to cast more actors and hunt for directors. Winners have starred in the shows, others have directed episodes or even been sent to study filmmaking abroad. The success of the activations led us to develop new shows and more engaging ideas.

The popularity of the shows represented an unprecedented success in terms of positive results: Views: • LaYwagif shows achieved 24,492,567 views (across all episodes). • Rayi7 Rayi7 shows achieved 12,803,589 views (across all episodes). • That’s a grand total of 37,296,156 views. STC is the world’s most viewed telecom brand on you tube. Publicity Value: With coverage on the region’s top TV channel on MBC 4 and a number of local and regional publications. The total earned publicity value for the STC Broadband is $470,000 Brand Health Tracker: • STC became a consistently leading Brand in Broadband. • Brand Equity for STC in Broadband continues on an upward trend, with its Brand Equity Index of 8.7 exceeding that of Mobily (STC’s closest competitor) by at least 6 points. Market Share: STC became market leader – with a 50% market share in 2015, compared to 40% the previous year.

The Strategy

Building on the insight that Saudi Youth are very active online, we created the region’s first online branded content hub “LaYwagif” (“Don’t let anything stand in your way”,) which hosted entertaining Branded content featuring YouTube stars in the form of sitcom series with multiple episodes and seasons.They talked about the Broadband RTBs, such as Best Coverage, Speed etc. in a light-hearted, subtle manner. Using internet starts in our episodes, meant that we could generate engagement in the form of shares and likes and word of mouth. Additionally, the wide variety of shows on the Hub allowed STC to host a number of competitions designed to cast more actors and hunt for directors. Winners have starred in the shows, others have directed episodes or even been sent to study filmmaking abroad. Allowing us to generate more interest in our content and talkability. Sure enough, the portal became an entertainment destination.

Credits

Name Company Role
Chafic Haddad J.Walter Thompson KSA Chief Creative Operations Officer
Rayyan Aoun J.Walter Thompson KSA Executive Creative Director
Amr Wagih Mergawi J.Walter Thompson KSA Associate Creative Director
Rawad El Dahouk J.Walter Thompson KSA Associate Creative Director
Yazeed Al Harthi/Haifa Al Rasheed J.Walter Thompson KSA Senior Copywriter
Ezzeddine Yassine/Firas Ghannam J.Walter Thompson KSA Art Director
Daniah Al Aoudah/Maian Alken J.Walter Thompson KSA Copywriter
Joe Abou Daher J.Walter Thompson KSA Head of TV Production KSA
Charly Wehbe J.Walter Thompson KSA Head Of Channel/Technology Planning
Laurent Wehbe J.Walter Thompson KSA Senior User Experience Architect
Elie Daccache J.Walter Thompson KSA Digital Project Director
Marc Baakliny/Max Dipasupil J.Walter Thompson KSA Digital Art Director
Fayez Jabri J.Walter Thompson KSA Business Director
Jad Haddad J.Walter Thompson KSA Account Director
Ahmad Shatila J. Walter Thompson KSA Senior Account Manager
Ahmed Al Sahhaf STC Marketing Communication Gm Consumer
Abdullah Al Otaibi STC Digital Media Manager/Consumer