2019 Winners & Shortlists

Synopsis.

Camelpower isn’t an advertising campaign. It doesn’t fit into any box. It’s a world-first automotive breakthrough created for Nissan, with global reach and application, which delivered unprecedented PR value. The team didn’t wait for a brief to develop a creative platform and communications campaign. Instead, we identified a business problem and proactively proposed a disruptive, ground-breaking and newsworthy creative solution. Collaborating with mechanical engineers, National Geographic and the official Government body for metrics and measurement, we found a way to use applied science to give the world an entirely new unit to measure automotive performance, born in the Middle East. Nissan’s SUV leadership was under threat, especially in the hearts and minds of Gulf off-roaders: competitors were claiming supremacy, with very high paid media support. Through extensive social listening analysis we discovered Petrol-heads love nothing more than to boast about their car’s performance – horsepower, top speed, 0-60mph – but in the desert, these measures are meaningless. With no adequate and legitimate unit to measure desert performance – we decided to create one, and thereby, assert Nissan’s SUV leadership. Our creative teams Nissan Middle East technicians partnered with independent, accredited engineers, geologists and ESMA to develop and validate a new unit: Camelpower (dCP). We needed to shift brand perceptions and attitudes to solidify Nissan’s off-road dominance. We didn’t have the budget to approach this as we would a traditional campaign. We would need to take an approach whereby we first generate sizeable earned media, then drive engagement, and ultimately improve our key brand metrics. We measured success against the following key performance indicators 1. Generate Earned Media Overall Campaign Reach Earned PR Media Impressions (GCC) 2. Drive Engagement Time spent engaging with campaign content (against relevant Nissan benchmarks) Social post engagement rate (against relevant Nissan benchmarks) 3. Improve Brand Metrics Our key ambition was to achieve greater recognition as the ultimate off-road manufacturer, to be measured by: Perception of Nissan as the manufacturer of the best off-roaders in the region +20% Brand Affinity +3 points (a statistically significant uplift in Nissan’s brand tracker) Perception of Nissan as an innovative brand +15% To tell the story, we had to explain the science behind it. An 11-minute documentary shot by and aired on National Geographic Abu Dhabi brought the entire process to life, from start to finish. Instead of paying for media space, this was the first time an idea paid us back with news coverage, PR and positive word of mouth around the world. The result was 2.8M in generated earned media. 22M PR impressions gained, significant uplifts in brand metrics, and an increase in off-roader sales, especially for Patrol.