2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Everyday when we turn on the news or open a web browser we’re confronted with misery. Angry rhetoric, walls going up, borders being closed, decades long alliances being broken. The planet burning. But in a world where people increasingly seem to be turning away from one another, Saudi Arabia, a hidden kingdom, opened it’s borders and arms to the world. Saudi Arabia has long resisted tourists visas which left foreign visitors with little opportunity to discover the many wonders of Saudi. The lack of awareness of the culture has also left the world with an inaccurate impression of the Kingdom and its peple. As the country evolves and now with the launch of the new e-visa scheme, visitors and investors will discover the beautiful landscapes, rich heritage and warm-hearted people. The goal is to establish Saudi Arabia as one of the 10 most visited countries in the world by 2030.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

While the launch of the E-visa commemorates a grand gesture in welcoming a new crowd into an undiscovered destination, the common misconceptions about the country were a giant hurdle to be faced when constructing our argument. The brief couldn’t just be treated as the launch of a new government service, but rather as the launch of a country. Our task subliminally became about rebranding a nation, as we needed to make sure the launch created mass appeal. With an additional consideration to the fact that Saudi was a new entrant within the realm of tourism, the campaign had to truly surprise people and drive the kind of footfall that other countries took decades to develop.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

It took the world and global industry leaders’ decades to build up the aspiration and allure of their natural attractions and thrilling adventures as tourism hotspots. What we wanted for Saudi Arabia: ride the wave of the global tourism spend and leverage it to its own favor. The creative idea was about interrupting the media with a big teaser that grabs maximum attention with global stories from one county, Saudi Arabia. Therefore, what we proposed was showing stunning images of ideal holiday destinations, places that look like Petra, The Maldives, Italy, The Rockies etc, but spinning it around by asking one BIG question: ‘Where in the world is this?’ Because all these breathtaking places are in one place. Untouched, Unseen and Undiscovered – Saudi.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

In the travel industry, established for over a hundred years and riddled with tropes, we leveraged the genuine unknown. We used stunning, never-before-seen landscape images of Saudi, with copy that reads “Where in the world is this?”. This concept was used across outdoor, digital, and a film, to create intrigue in one of the biggest teasers the world has ever seen. This was followed by reveal content, which identified the mysterious beautiful landscapes as all being Saudi Arabia.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

We outperformed Google’s benchmarks for ad recall, with exceptional results of 67-98% in key markets like Italy, Russia, Spain, Germany and Australia. We also delivered great results on Facebook, bettering the benchmark by minimum factor of 3 across all markets. We beat all Facebook benchmarks by factors ranging from .25 to 4 across all markets for recall. Once our ‘reveal’ phase was live, we saw 4x the growth in Saudi related search terms; a result notable not only because of it indicating interest, but also because searches for the broader Travel and Tourism vertical declined by -2% over the same period. We also saw content partners like Trip Advisor, Bloomberg and Lonely Planet take the license to run with our creative approach: Expedia: TA: engagement on travel content down -3% yoy, on Saudi content +35% yoy Bloomberg: 74.5 sec active dwell v 49.7 sec benchmark LP: +44% views vs benchmark

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

Saudi Arabia’s decision to invite tourists in September 2019 for the first time represented the type of transformative change that goes to the core of who we are as a brand. In a world where borders are being closed, we see countries open up in fiction - see Wakanda, Black Panther - but not in reality. It’s our believe that in terms of scale, ambition, speed and real-world change, Saudi Tourism is the biggest challenger brand on the planet today. Our campaigns explicit referencing of other prestigious hotspots reaffirmed the competition as a known option for travelers, allowing them to guess #whereintheworld we were talking about. Our reveal of #WelcomeToArabia reframed our competition as a collective whilst simultaneously depositioning them as a ‘been there, done that’ option. In a dramatic, disruptive, visual manner, we showed that we are a genuinely new, truly stunning and deeply unexpected possibility for today’s tourists.