2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Huawei’s approached us to create a campaign to launch their latest smartphone, the Mate 20 Pro. They had a number of objectives. Firstly to build anticipation around its release date and highlight the key features of the Leica camera and the phone. Secondly, to drive traffic to the Mate 20 Pro website. Finally, they wanted a library of localised content that could be used across their internal channels. The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) consumers are extremely discerning and value quality innovation in their lives. With this campaign Huawei hoped to target young, tech savvy male and female within UAE, KSA and Kuwait who are into photography, lifestyle and the latest innovation. The goal was to reach 9 million people with this content.

Describe the creative idea.

Given their highly engaged audiences, wide reach and content-creating abilities, an influencer campaign was the most effective solution. To first build awareness, highlight the beauty of the phone and its unique features in the most creative way, and provide Huawei with high quality assets. Influencers were to be given the the Mate 20 Pro ahead of the official launch to create content. These influencers were talented content creators in the field of photography and lifestyle so they could showcase the phone to its full potential. Instagram is an ultra-competitive space and only content that is the highest quality is able to capture the audiences attention. The brief was left intentionally loose so the creators had room to interpret it in their own way. Savvy audiences are able to recognise brand-forced language and strict creative direction, instantly flagging the content as advertising, so all efforts were made to avoid this.

Describe the strategy.

To resonate with GCC’s discerning customers, it was important this campaign spoke to them as locally as possible. By using influencers from within the GCC and asking them to shoot with the GCC, this local element was felt throughout the campaign. We used data from their influencer database, derived from Instagram business accounts, to find talent who were not only local, but were the optimum fit in terms of age and interests to communicate with Huawei’s target customer. Through this process we were also able to access their audience profiles to ensure we would be delivering the campaign to the right people, for the best results. With Instagram being such a visual medium, and Instagram users being so focused on creating high quality imagery for it, using it as the platform to promote a smartphone’s camera was a natural fit.

Describe the execution.

52 male and female photography and lifestyle micro influencers were briefed. To influence purchase of a high-priced product, there must be a strong element of trust, and influencers with smaller audiences have better average engagement. Each created six Instagram posts (still image or video) and at least nine Instagram Stories over three months. This campaign length maximised the chance of their followers seeing the product and added to its authenticity. Posts highlighted the phone’s USPs. Requirements were set to ensure this objective was met. If the photos were taken with the phone they had to use the ultra wide angle feature or macro shot to capture scenery, with the Huawei watermark switched on. Pictures taken of the phone were to showcase only the sleek back design, keeping the phone as the hero of the image. This consistent visual touchpoint ensured the campaign felt consistent.

List the results.

312 Instagram posts and 468 Instagram Stories were viewed across UAE, KSA and Kuwait resulting in a total reach of 14,638,146, 62% above target. The average engagement for this campaign for Instagram posts was 16.1%. An excellent result as brand sponsored content averages around 3%. Huawei were left with a bank of bespoke, high-quality imagery which they could use to amplify the effects of the campaign. Hossam Fathy, Digital Marketing manager at Huawei Technologies said: “We were extremely happy by both the quality of content and results of this campaign. In choosing talented photography specialists and lifestyle content creators, our influencers were able to capture the unrivalled benefits of the Mate 20 Pro. The campaign proved so effective, it directly contributed to the product selling out in the UAE before its launch date. We plan to re-use the campaign imagery across both our social channels and paid media”