2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Video Games Today is an Industry that surpasses Telecommunications, Film and TV with Annual earnings of $66 Billion worldwide. This magnitude led to the creation of gaming rating systems such as ESRB and PEGI and The SAudi GCAM. But even with these systems, there are still many Parents who are unaware of the importance of monitoring and selecting games that are appropriate for their children and that was the brief, to do an awareness campaign with the objective of influencing parents to play their role in selecting suitable games for their children.

Describe the strategy

Research provided by the client, showed that most of parents in Saudi Arabia think of video games as age neutral and most of them are ignorant that gaming now has evolved to become a medium for content similar to movies, books.. etc. However, our research showed that most parents are happy that their children are playing and off their backs. Which led to the decision that it is very important to go with a bold approach that will never go unseen. This campaign needed to be shocking but at the same time witty, something that will resonate with parents to actually consider paying attention to what their children play. The idea of showing a child doing horrible things or in an environment that doesn’t fit an innocent child.

Describe the execution

A series of Videos depicting a child in an environment where he\she doesn’t belong, in a way the simulate video games immersion and interactions. A concerned parent walks in and breaks the immersion. The Tagline appears asking the parent to play his\her role in selecting suitable video games for their children. Preparations started immediately after clients approval on the direction. Misk values is a non profit organization, and their budget for producing these commercials was tight, which led to shooting the whole three commercials in one day. It was a challenge, but our production agency’s proper time management and efficiency helped tremendously in this great achievement.

List the results

The Campaign was a success. a single post from one influencer got alone a little over 10k retweet and 17k likes with 800k views. With so many people downloading the videos and post it on their own YouTube channels with new titles and descriptions. The Campaign went viral and opened a public discussion on the importance of supervision and choosing what’s best for children. The Campaign also got coverage on Rotana and Saudi TV discussed the campaign and conducted field interviews asking parents about their involvement in what their children play.