2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Zain, Kuwait's leading telecom provider, prints more than 20,000 giveaway corporate calendars every year. These are delivered directly to their customers homes & offices and additional copies are also available at ZAIN's POS. However this time the corporate calendar was executed in a much more engaging, and more importantly environmentally friendly format. Zain directly contributed to make Kuwait a greener country. This direct brand giveaway, turned Zain's customers into brand custodians, who nurtured the brand. In this way the brand was naturally present in peoples homes, offices and lives - potentially for many years to come.

Background

• Situation Paper is the 3rd largest polluter of air, water and soil in the world. It accounts for 26% of waste in the world's landfills and when paper rots it emits ethane gas, 25 times more toxic than CO2. Every year corporate brands across the globe print and distribute corporate calendars contributing to the situation. Zain, Kuwait's leading telco also prints a giveaway corporate calendar every year. Kuwait itself is one the world ‘s least green countries, from an environmental point of view, and it has also has a very sparse vegetation due to its climate with lack of rainfall. • Brief To create an environmentally friendly corporate calendar for Zain Kuwait. • Objectives To have a direct distributed brand collateral with a minimal carbon footprint. Something that would inspire ecological thinking, and would be something different than the conventional classic corporate calendar that would spark a conversation.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Zain's brand promise is 'A Wonderful World'. We wanted to deliver on this brand promise by making Kuwait, one of the least green countries on earth, greener. This calendar uses ecological seed paper. So once a month is finished, you can plant it and a plant, herb or flower will grow. However, what really makes this calendar unique, and truly one of a kind, plus highly relevant to the brand, is that each month’s plant grows to look like one of the designs of Zain’s iconic brand patterns(!). Bringing them to life in a whole new dimension: The living dimension. The world’s first living and breathing brand elements! Zain is probably the only brand in the world that would be able to make a project like this - as their rich brand identity is comprised of 30+ different brand patterns, that are being utilized across in their communication.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

• Data gathering When analyzing Kuwait Google keyword searches in 2020, we saw a marked increase between Jan 2020 - June 2020 (project started in June) for the following search keywords: Recycling, Plants, Organic, flowers This showed us that the Kuwaiti population would be quite receptive for an idea like this. • Target audience (consumer demographic / individuals / organisations) Zain's corporate calendar is aimed at all Zain's customers, individuals and B2B. • Approach A simple and engaging interactive giveaway, which would allow them to interact with the brand in an unprecedented way, by planting and growing the brand! • Call to action On a our free giveaway we put our simple, warm and friendly CTA, "Let's grow together in 2021." Something reflecting the hardships of 2020, but addressing the desire to also continue growing with our customers and of course also pointing out that each month was plantable.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

• Implementation A calendar in a box with the calendar printed on 12 organic growable seed papers. All of the materials were out of recycled paper and recycled compressed cardboard. We also used de-bossing for our patterns on the box and our notebook to save ink. •Timeline The development of the calendar started in June. We conducted 2 months of botanical design research looking at hundreds of plants and flowers in their different growth cycles selecting suitable matches for Zain's brand patterns. Once we locked our 12 months we sourced our organic and ecological seed paper, and set out to create a pleasing modern design for our direct giveaway calendar. Once finished, this was deliver during the last week of December and the first weeks of January 2021. •Placement Delivered to homes, offices and Zain POS. Scale +20,000 copies (Box size 25 x 18cm and A5 Calendar & A5 notebook)

List the results (30% of vote)

• Business impact – sales, donations, site traffic (as this work launched on the 1st of Jan we still don't have enough enough data to process) However once the corporate calendar (which is a free giveaway) was fully distributed, people how hadn't received it (Zain prints +20,000 copies) called to ask if and where they could buy the calendar(!). This is quite remarkable as a response and shows the impact this direct piece achieve in the marketplace. • Response rate N/A • Change in behaviour This work very much initiated a behavioral shift for Zain's customers with an increase in ecological thinking, making the brand and the Kuwaitis taking a small step forward to create a greener environment in general (something Kuwaitis are starved for). To quote the client's CSR brand promise "A sustainable World is a Wonderful World" and this calendar definitely was a step in the right direction.