2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Our research proved that our target audience is a very smart shopper; favours saver discounts and participates in raffles to win prizes. We also knew that Indian radio stations are their most consumed media where the Radio jockeys are perceived as Bollywood stars in the region. So we came up with the idea of a promotional campaign ‘Cricket in the blood, Sprite in the heart’. All our audience had to do was to consume Sprite and collect runs found under the caps by texting in a unique code for a chance to win weekly prizes, as well as the grand prize of AED 100,000 worth of gold. Sprite is a distant #2 brand that continuously battles for a share of voice versus competition. With 70% of Sprite cricket stars’ target audience are blue collars Asians, Sprite’s promotion allows them to win their dream prize of 100,000 AED worth of gold.

Creative Execution

Competing radio stations made live calls to announce their participation and sparked a feud-like competition between them. Daily calls were made to tease each other about the runs collected and their standing in the RJ leader board. RJs were also opening cans live on radio & Facebook, educating the audience on the promotion mechanics and engaging their support. Each radio station created a #hashtag and listeners were asked to re-use their existing codes to help them win by tagging their stations’ hashtags via SMS. Participation levels and weekly winners were showcased through the daily leader board on Facebook & Cricbuzz.com Outdoor media across metro stations in the UAE was constantly updated with new visuals reflecting the status of the competition. The campaign ran for a total of 5 months (from August till end of year) reaching over 3 million blue & white collars in the UAE across all media platforms.

a. Promotion results: The high level of consumer engagement allowed the RJs to collect 2M runs The consumers generated 30M+ runs by campaign end VS 1M estimated b. Social results: The overall campaign’s engagement rate reached 11%; 3x higher than benchmark, Click through rate of 4.32%; 3x higher than benchmark Total video views of 4M. c. Sales results and brand index: The impact on the business was phenomenal; the promo SKU sales grew by +33.7% VS last year surpassing our sales objective of 5% Sprite’s BLS grew by 0.67 points and P4W 9points.

A supporter of Asian Cricket, Sprite added an unexpected twist in 2017. To promote their Under the Cap promotion which rewarded consumers with daily prizes including AED 100,000 worth of gold, they went beyond traditional media. Sprite hijacked 6 leading Asian radio stations! RJ’s engaged with the audience asking them to include #NameOfTheirStation in their messages to collect the Runs found under Sprite caps together to reach the top of the online scoreboards. OOH was also used to invite participants A simple media plan was transformed into a full-on virtual cricket match with Sprite at the center of the fun.

Asians' love cricket; for them cricket is life. So this promotion spoke to them directly but the challenge was to stand out from the crowd and get high engagement levels. So we decided to hijack 6 leading Asian radio stations and create the first UAE inter radio cricket competition! RJ’s would engage with the audience asking them to collect ‘Runs’ found under Sprite caps together. Sprite bottles would be sent to the radio stations every morning and to add heat to the competition, RJ’s would battle it out to reach the top of the online scoreboards. Raising awareness about the promotion was essential but strengthening the association with Sprite and cricket was an even bigger objective. Partnering with radio stations and supported by social media and OOH, RJ’s would engage with our audience and capture their passion for the game to make this campaign successful.