2019 Winners & Shortlists

Synopsis.

In late September a historic royal decree granted women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. The Royal Decree was met with mixed reactions in Saudi Arabia. An official survey in October 2017 revealed 82% of women intended to apply for a license and drive. And while the majority of respondents (61%) felt the change showed society progressing in the right direction, only a minority of local men (32%) were willing to support women of the family driving – 26% were against it, with a further 42% undecided. Our objective was to normalise the idea of women driving to all men in KSA, and in so doing, give women the confidence to get behind the wheel. The idea was brought to life by dramatising the reactions of real women when the influential male members of their family – fathers, uncles, husbands and brothers – played a supportive and encouraging role as their first driving instructor. News of The Royal Decree broke at 11:30pm. An hour later, the "2018-GRL" Tweet was developed followed by three videos in the following weeks. The content generated was enjoyed across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There was very little paid media support, but the reaction to the content was clear – views, view-through rate, likes, comments and shares were well beyond anything the brand had seen in Saudi Arabia before. Over the course of ten weeks, the content film from the driving lesson activation delivered unprecedented results. It cost $20,000 to produce in total and received paid media support of $17,500 - $11,000 on YouTube, $4,000 on Facebook, $3,000 on Instagram and $500 on Twitter. Generate Earned Media Impressions “GRL 2018” Number Plate - *Over 562,000 organic impressions (+125% over Nissan benchmarks) Online Driving Lesson Film – **4 million impressions (+19% over Nissan benchmarks) Online Drivign Lesson Film – **2.3 million views (+96% over Nissan benchmarks) Earned Media & PR Impressions Coverage on TV and online including Reuters, CNN, Al Arabiya and BBC Worldwide has been valued at 2.1M Drive Engagement Time spent with campaign film– **1.9M minutes watched (+48% over Nissan benchmarks) Viewer retention rate - 70% viewer retention rate (+40% over YouTubes benchmark for excellence) Engagement rate (likes, shares and comments) – 10% engagement rate (+100% over YouTubes benchmark for excellent engagement with content “GRL 2018” Engagement – 8.8% engagement rate (+252% over Twitters benchmark for excellence) Drive Positive Brand Sentiment Overall positive sentiment on social media, despite the political and polarizing nature of the campaign. Positive sentiment – 68%. Negative sentiment – 13% #shedrives, the official campaign hashtag, was adopted leading up to the actual date, women were given the opportunity to drive legally. Female influencers, real women, news outlets and even other brands used the hashtag we created, symbolising the influence our campaign has had on this hugely significant moment in Saudi culture. The result was a fundamental shift in the attitudes and behaviours of men and women in KSA around the hot topic of women driving.