2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

As the country’s leading telco operator, STC faced increasing competition over its claim to have the widest coverage. The market was inundated with messages from competitors Mobily & Zain claiming to have the widest network, covering even the outskirts of Saudi Arabia. This was also impacting our brand equity, with the perception of network strength dropping. However, rather than enter a shouting match, and compete over who could say widest coverage the loudest, as the market leader, we needed to walk the talk, and actually demonstrate our network strength and reassert our leadership. 2017- 2018 Our objective was to increase perception of network strength by 10% from 52% (Source: Research agency Brand Tracker) 2019-2020 – Our objective was to maintain our leadership in perception of network strength and increase above 70% (Source: Research agency Brand Tracker)

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

How could we convince an entire nation, that we had the best coverage? Especially when we were talking to every Saudi – with over 180% mobile penetration in Saudi, most of our audience was a customer of more than one telco operator. We had to reassure an audience whose loyalty was based on quality of service that our network was the strongest. This was the perfect opportunity for us to demonstrate how strong our network actually was even in the remotest areas of Saudi.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Through a workshop, we explored the realities of network coverage. As we thought about how far the network could reach within the Kingdom - We were reminded how vast, rich in culture and largely undiscovered the Saudi Kingdom is – with much of it unknown even to Saudis themselves. This gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how strong our network actually was even in the remotest areas of Saudi. So we set out to prove STC’s wider coverage by broadcasting live from some the Kingdom’s most remote locations and, in the process, uncover the country’s hidden beauty. 'Unveil Saudi’ was born- and became a massive demonstration of STC's network power that put the remotest parts of Saudi Arabia on the map. Unprecedented in scale and scope and a first of its kind product and service demonstration.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

With a team of local photographers and leading influencers, we captured scenes that were never shot before.we broadcast live, using the network, on an online site that had Saudis captivated. With every photo and video, we unveiled what was previously hidden and revealed a country breathtaking in its diversity. Over consecutive trips, through STC’s vast network coverage, we unveiled 75 locations– not just cities and villages but islands as well. We uploaded immediately,enabling people to be with us every step of the way. New monetizing opportunities opened up and Brands asked to purchase our content. We collaborated with the Ministry of Education to create an immersive VR experience in schools and universities- we empowered students with a strong network to go on discovery trips of their own to gather content that would showcase and highlight “unseen” Saudi. The ministry of Tourism is also using our content

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Unveil Saudi became an ecosystem, unveiling a whole culture, its history, food, traditions across a multitude of channels. Beyond showcasing how far STC’s network can reach, we were demonstrating how deep it can go. From 2016/2018 Perception of network strength increased by 17% which is 70% more than our target (Source: Research agency brand tracker) We had 1.2 million unique visitors to the site (Source: website backend) 100,000 posts, and 30,218,620 views (Source: website backend, social media analytics) Our hashtag generated 1.4 billion potential impressions (Source: Twitter) Generating 320,000,000 media impressions & 1.7 million USD in PR value (Source: STC) Content that followed from Nov 2019 – February 2020 Actual leadership in Network strength from 70% in 2017 to 92% in 2020 (Source: Nielsen Brand Health Tracker) We had a total of 8,230,636 views & impressions: 8,456,824 organic impressions and 492,563 organic engagements (Source:Media agency)

Please tell us about the long term strategic planning

In Unveil Saudi we created an ecosystem, unveiling a whole culture, its history, food,traditions across a multitude of channels. Beyond showcasing how far STC’s network can reach, we were demonstrating how deep it can go. In our increasingly always-on,tech-enabled world,it’s more important than ever to connect with your audience on a human level. People still love to see interesting places and hear personal stories. This was one of the key strengths of ‘Unveil Saudi’. Our long term strategic planning meant that stc witnessed the value of creating a platform, as opposed to a one-off campaign. The payback comes in the form of long-term equity for the brand,opening doors to partnerships and fostering social media engagement. From a solution to a business problem, Unveil Saudi has grown to become a brand, a modern-day ambassador of Saudi Arabia and an unprecedented demonstration of network strength unseen and unheard of in the industry.