2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Saudi women spend a lot of time online but can’t freely express themselves. Furthermore, they don’t like to associate themselves with menstrual pad brands, given the embarrassment factor. Always, the market leader in menstrual pads, wanted to connect with Saudi women online to build its community. Always launched an online march for women to move forward towards a better tomorrow. This gave women a platform to express themselves in videos by only showing their steps while stating their belief, dream, or purpose. This brought to life the Always brand purpose of women empowerment through the lens of Saudi women.

Creative Execution

The movement brought to life the brand purpose of women empowerment, and was supported for two month on Facebook and Instagram as planned. It launched on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram with three influencer videos sharing their personal success stories and encouraging girls to participate in the movement. Also, an instameet was organized where women contributed in making a video explaining how others could participate; people pushed this on Instagram, while Always shared it across its platforms, announcing it would help support some contributors achieve their dreams. Women shared their stories across platforms, while Always curated the submissions and created its own, all around the brand purpose of women empowerment. The movement received over 5,000 user-generated entries on Instagram and Facebook, and Always chose three women to support their dream.

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

The Online March exceeded our targets for user-generated content and community growth: - It generated more than 45 million impressions on Facebook and Instagram, and 4.6 million print impressions. - The participation mechanism allowed over 5,000 women to express themselves with content they submitted. There were +1 million interactions around that content and +2.6 million organic views on the videos. - Brand affinity has also improved as a result: the Facebook brand page got a +12.51% fan growth (+10,000 new fans in two months), while the Instagram page received +5,500 new Instagram followers (starting from zero).

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

Always, the market leader in menstrual pads, wanted to connect with Saudi women online to build its community. It did so by tackling women empowerment through the lens of Saudi women, packaged in the possibility that the brand would help some contributors achieve their goals. Always launched an online platform for women to express themselves in videos by only showing their steps while stating their belief, dream, or purpose and using the hashtag #MoveForward (or its Arabic equivalent). The brand rewarded three women with financial support to achieve their dream.