Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has set a vision for the country to modernize and reform: One of the key pillars of his vision is to increase women’s role and rights within society.
On 26 September 2017, a royal decree gave women the right to drive as of the 24th June 2018. while the majority of respondents (61%) felt the change showed society progressing in the right direction, only a minority of men (44%) were willing to support the women of the family driving
As the leading and only national telco, STC is part of the future economy and at the forefront of the change happening in the kingdom. Support for 2030 was critical for the country and in turn for STC.
With the 24th June fast approaching, STC was committed to making this change accepted and encouraging the nation to be unified behind the change
Describe the cultural/social/political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context
2018 was a transformational year for women in Saudi– in a country where women had faced restrictions from voting, the ability to work in certain sectors to even entering football stadiums-this all changed. The decree allowing women to drive also came into effect in June.Women had had little representation beyond the family and the kitchen, and with these new changes taking place brands now had an opportunity to help Saudi women navigate them.
However much of the representation or endorsement to follow particularly on driving was a case of everyone jumping on a media bandwagon- in short largely cosmetic.
STC wanted to lead the change in mindset, in a country where the decision to allow women to drive had divided the nation. So with this campaign we turned to the past and Saudi’s history-there is a Saudi Arabia today because of a woman, Princess Noura, The woman who drove her brother to lay the foundations of the kingdom. In doing so,not only did we demonstrate that women have always had a role but that It’s not by celebrating women being allowed to drive that you promote female empowerment but it’s by acknowledging their historic right to drive the country forward.
Describe the creative idea
Remind those that oppose change, that this Change is not actually change
We took the nation back to 1902, and reminded them of their roots with an online film and told the story of Noura’s brother (akhou Noura)- the story of King abdulaziz, a young man who went on a quest to reclaim his grandfather’s kingdom and succeeded. All because of Noura. Consequently he called
Describe the strategy
While many brands had started to communicate with empowering messages of “its your time”, we decided to dig deeper to really understand the fabric of Saudi Arabia, and so we went back in time – we looked at Saudi’s history and in our journey we went back as far as 1902.
We discovered the story of a young man who went on a quest to reclaim his grandfather’s kingdom and succeeded. All because of the help of his sister Noura. This young man was King Abdulaziz Bin Abulrahman the founder of Saudi arabia and he named himself after his sister, the brother of noura (akhounoura) to honor her driving force in the Kingdom’s history.
We had to remind the nation of its history, that women playing such a key role in society what not new but rather part of Saudi Arabia’s DNA.
Describe the execution
We took the nation back to 1902, and reminded them of their roots with an online film telling the story of Noura’s brother (akhou Noura)- the story of King abdulaziz, Our film ended with a call to action to all men to support all women on the day of driving and even every day, asking them to change their names by following in the footsteps of King Abdulaziz and share on our hashtag #akhounoura
We distributed pins and stickers that men and women could personalize and use as their own. On social media we created filters and profile templates that the nation could personalize to show support for the women in their lives.
STC had to walk the talk and so we changed STC’s 17,000 email signatures. And our streets names were renamed within our compound after the first 5 female employees who took the driver’s seat.
Describe the results/impact
The nation responded:Famous TV hosts, university students, and even soldiers joined the movement through customized pins and car stickers. Influencers featured the names of their sisters, daughters or wives as their profile pics. Government officials did the same with their badges, as did The Royal Family.
The film
-5 million views
- 40 million impressions
- Our hashtag was the second trending hashtag on twitter on the day of driving
STC was the Saudi woman’s first choice
- Main brand increased from 54% to 61%
- Top of Mind awareness from 70% to 72%
We generated an earned media value of 1 million USD
More importanty STC’s commitment to the change of woman driving helped galvanise a nation behind every woman, altering the nation’s mindset. Demonstrating that change didn’t make history but that history made the change desired in Saudi Arabia.