2019 Winners & Shortlists

WHAT HAPPENS IN RUSSIA, WON'T STAY IN RUSSIA!

Short List
BrandSAUDI TELECOM COMPANY
Product/ServiceROAMING
EntrantJ. WALTER THOMPSON Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
CategoryBrand Integration & Sponsorships/Partnerships
Idea Creation J. WALTER THOMPSON Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
Production DREAMBOX FILMS Beirut, LEBANON

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Rather than enter an ineffective price war, STC took on the youth’s phobia towards roaming head on by launching “Rayi7 Rayi7” season 4; an entertaining online show in which a group of friends decided to travel to Russia and introduce Saudis to the country before the world cup. Not only were the Saudi youth entertained by great content, but they were also introduced to the benefits of STC’s roaming bundles, making Russia already feel very much like home.

Background.

In the summer season, when travel peaks, STC wanted to continue to lead with its international roaming services – While every telco wanted a piece of the pie, almost all-previous market communication was price driven, focusing on the price per minute/MB while highlighting the details in each bundle Roaming is a scary topic when it comes to its financial implications on STC subscribers’ phone bills, (particularly data)especially for?travellers?who want to tell and share their stories with their family and friend back home. With the travel season upon us, it was time to take the roaming phobia head on. What made this summer very different was the world cup: With Saudi Arabia qualifying, Russia was sure to be a key destination for our roamers. Our challenge was to fight consumer roaming phobia and position STC as a worry-free data roaming provider due to its?diverse?and flexible roaming plans/solutions

Describe the creative idea.

To make Russia feel like home: Through exclusive roaming packages that are just as affordable as those in Saudi and secondly through content that changed local perception about Russia, a country whose culture and traditions are widely thought to be at odds with Saudis. The best person for the job was a puppet: Our roaming puppet. We had created an entertaining online show ‘Rai7 Rai7’ in which a group of friends travel with our Puppet character and enjoy new experiences together on vacation with no internet hick-ups, the Puppet represents the left behind friend who managed to be part of the fun no matter where. This year, we took the puppet to Russia accompanied by a courageous team of heroes: Aziz Alsheheri an actor,Samer alfaraj (influencer) and two of the national Saudi footballers. They all had one goal: to share exclusive and never-before-seen content about the Russia on “Rayi7 Rayi7”

Describe the strategy

Roaming takes away the comforts of being at home After talking to youth planning to travel to Russia, we were armed with two key findings:1 1-SIM SWITCH The perception of Roaming being a very expensive service that is driving STC subscribers to switch to a local SIM from the country they are visiting 2- Russia was perceived to be very different culturally – while there was a lot of excitement around going to the world cup, there was also some anxiety around visiting a country that was perceived to be so culturally different (from food, to weather, to customs) and a country they knew very little about And so to make our roaming packages relevant we wanted to make them feel at home while in Russia

Describe the execution

In the show’s new season placed on YouTube and STC’s entertainment hub, our leading men went where no Saudi has gone before: To three cities hosting the matches, visiting stadiums and even taking the Saudi football players along with them. An online-targeted campaign kicked off to drive initial traffic and drive hype to each episode with the aim to establish the show. We teased our audience with one-minute trailers as support to further build the show’s awareness and equity. To maintain traffic YouTube pre-rolls were key supported with online and social ads driving traffic to the communicated episode page on site. After serving the awareness ads, the campaign continued with the Direct Response phase. As the date for the opening match between none other than KSA & Russia approached, we released handy hints and tips for travelers and introduced our roaming packages using our stars of the show!

Describe the outcome

The results were undeniable • Roaming product subscriptions have achieved an 8% increase in sales compared to last year’s data and 11% compared to the last 3 years. 1 • Top of mind for roaming increased from 62% to 65% 1 • Brand recommenders from 60% to 66% 1 • Audience viewership has reached 4.7 million for Russia Season original with average 1.53 per episode increasing the current viewership on STC YouTube account 30%2 ? • Following our Russia season, Channel subscription has reached 7% double of the last 3 seasons increase 2 But the most rewarding result of all… was witnessing thousands of Saudi Fans roaming the streets of Russia and supporting their National Team. 1STC sales Data 2 Campaign analytics & You Tube

Credits

Name Company Role
Chafic Haddad J.Walter Thompson Chief Creative Operations Officer
Rayyan Aoun J.Walter Thompson Executive Creative Director
Firas Ghannam J.Walter Thompson Associate Creative Director
Dana Alkutoubi J.Walter Thompson Head of Strategic Planning KSA
Jad Haddad J.Walter Thompson Associate Business Director
Ziad Rayes J.Walter Thompson Account Director
Ahmed Alsahhaf Saudi Telecom Company GM Marketing & Communications
Abdullah Alotaibi Saudi Telecom Company Digital Media Director
Jude Al Saati J.Walter Thompson Producer
Dreambox Dreambox Production House
Yahya Ismail Dreambox Director
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