2018 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

During the month of Ramadan, people spend an average of 14 hours a day fasting as it is one of Islam’s main pillars. The days are long (kind of like this judging process). Their attention span is low, and they want something to pass the time. So, they turn to their mobiles for entertainment. Our research revealed that there was a huge spike in social media usage during the fasting times. When we dug deeper, we realized that this group was actually communicating with each other rather than browsing their feeds. We also knew that Snapchat was one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the region because Saudis are generally more private, so they preferred Snapchat when engaging with their closest circle of influence. Knowing that friends and family influence each other more than any TV advert, we decided to create a real-time digital activation on Snapchat.

Creative Execution

To entice our audience to learn, sing and share our song, we created a one-of-kind Snapchat Lens, which was a first for the region. The Snapchat-Mobily Ramadan lens was equipped with the first-ever lip-syncing, karaoke-inspired technology that allowed users to naturally sing our song and then share it with their closest inner circle. The lens also featured bespoke Mobily Sunglasses, which played the TVC version of the song. We ran our sponsored lens across the Kingdom on Snapchat two days before Ramadan was set to kick off, which gave us a head start against our competition. Users could then sing along to Mobily’s song, with the lyrics appearing on screen. The lyrics appeared at the bottom of the screen and helped users memorize the song, lip-sync it and share it with their friends in a fun and engaging way.

By using Snapchat, Mobily’s song topped the Anghami charts as the most popular Ramadan song. It scored the highest plays and likes on the music platform with 55,000 streams per day, which was 65% more than similar theme songs. Mobily’s song was also the most recognized song by KSA Youtube viewers as per the Youtube survey - 65% recalls with more than 10.8M views In only one day, more than 10M plays were recorded on the lens, with 42M impressions reached on that day. Moreover, 713,000 uses of the filter were recorded with 42M views, On a brand level, we had an increase of share of conversation by 43%, An increase of awareness and interaction with Mobily’s song by 55%, which made a lot of influencers tweet that Mobily’s song was their personal favourite this year.

Mobily wanted to the launch its Ramadan song and ensure it climbed to the top of the charts. However, every other Telco had the same idea, and the only way Saudis were going to embrace our song over the competition, was if they saw their closest inner circle singing it. So, we leveraged a popular digital platform amongst Saudis and created an activation that stole the hearts, and voices. Whilst everyone else was fighting for air-time, our campaign exceeded expectations by breaking global standards and keeping our brand top-of-mind.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our audience was young, social-media savvy, fasting Muslims that were looking to be entertained during the Holy Month of Ramadan. If we wanted to be number one, we needed to relate to this audience and connect with them beyond the traditional channels. Our Mobily song, which showed all the iconic moments that took place during two distinct eras, was booked to launch on traditional media such as TV, and digital. However, most of our competition had already populated their songs on these channels, including Anghami – a free music app in the region that Saudis used regularly for the latest hits. We decided to break away from the conventional channels and connect with our audience using Snaphat, which is not necessarily known for music, but where people go to and interact with their closest friends and family.