2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

To tell the world the Middle East is ready for the e-commerce big leagues, by demonstrating that size does matter!

Execution

Initial messaging created, with emphasis on scale and regional ownership. Hype built through a teaser release, setting the date for a ‘game-changing’ announcement. High-level press conference held to announce Noon at the Dubai Opera House with investors and management. Interviews secured between Noon management, including Mohammed Alabbar, and tier-1 media in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, regionally and internationally. Promotional video created: showing the Middle East a glimpse into a year from now, with Noon in full swing, and how the company’s e-commerce offering has transformed the region. Trade media briefed on Noon technology and innovation, including logistics and payment programs. Speaker opportunities in relevant sectors leveraged, including the Arabian Business Digital Forum. Noon messages were relayed across other events held at the same time, most notably, the World Economic Forum’s agenda setting Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils, held in Dubai concurrent with the noon launch.

For a full month after the launch announcement, Noon was everywhere. The chairman, Mohamed Alabbar was on the cover of leading business magazines, in the core markets: UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC. Global coverage too, was excellent, with coverage in the Financial Times, Reuters and Bloomberg. More than 70 tier-1 media and social media influencers attended the launch event In total, the Noon launch received 558 separate media hits, with a total reach just shy of 100 million people, for a perceived ad value of US$4,112,037. The agency continues to work with Noon to establish ownership of key sectors within the e-commerce space. A recent media announcement about Noon’s plans for fashion as a key differentiator saw additional coverage around the GCC region and beyond, with 75+ news clips delivering a perceived value of more than US$520,00.

The Situation

With no above-the-line campaign to support the launch, breaking the news of the Middle East’s biggest e-commerce investment would depend on our expertise in critical PR disciplines: leveraging our relationship with journalists to ensure maximum impact around the region; and developing outstanding, memorable messaging that would keep put the client top-of-mind for e-commerce in the region for journalists and consumers alike.

The Strategy

To effectively compete with e-commerce retail giants’ taking note of the region, we had to focus on scale: • Biggest and widest selection: 20million products covering fashion, beauty, books, home & garden, electronics, kids and baby, and more • 10m sq.ft. of warehousing - 3.5m sq.ft. UAE fulfilment centre will cover as much space as 60 football fields • Same-day delivery through Noon Transportation, in-house express delivery service • NoonPay, a secure and innovative payment gateway We leveraged thought leadership opportunities, identifying speaker roles at events being held around the time of the launch. In addition, we shone a bright light on expertise: a management team drawn entirely from e-commerce sector leaders including Amazon, Apple, PayPal, eBay, Google, Flipkart. The challenge was that the launch announcement happened at a time when we had little to show in terms of set-up and infrastructure. We had to rely on effective media relations, and leveraging key spokespeople.