2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The whole objective of this campaign was to change the reputation of a company and a nation. Bad news had made the headlines, we needed good news to make the headlines. And it was achieved through a digital PR strategy.

Background

September 14 2019, a shocking day for Saudi Arabia. With one blow, the country’s oil production was cut by 50% and with it, people’s resilience was put to the test. After decades of hard work, would they go on building the country’s promising future? But in less than 7 days, Saudi Aramco restored full operations and Saudi Arabia’s vision for its future was back on track. However, news of the attacks had rocked the morale of the people of Saudi Arabia. Our campaign objective was to give people a message of resilience and show that we were back on track. We needed positive news to spread and replace the negative PR the company got.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To spread news of our come back and bring resilience back, we needed a campaign with the same kind of reach that news channels have. So how do we create such a campaign? Simple, it’s not how, it’s where and when. We partnered with twitter, the #1 social media platform where all of Saudi Arabia goes to read news and spread news instantly. And we turned each Saudi on twitter into our own micro news channel.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

On September 19th, 3 days before Saudi National Day, there and then, we launched our film, for the whole nation, with a message of resilience. The film tells the story of a company with deep roots in Saudi, a company that grew with the nation, made history with it and was not about to give up on the future of the nation. Every time a Saudi retweeted the Aramco national day film, they received a reply tweet from an automated bot that directed them to one of the 14 nation- wide projects Aramco was still fueling. The retweets were catchy, simple and written in the form of positive news headlines, targeting each Saudi directly. We then invited viewers to go to our micro-site where they could explore the film’s hidden historical and cultural gems. Gems provided through interactive hotspots reminding them of the bright future that’s ahead.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Our film was already in the making for national day, the decision we took was to launch it despite of the attacks. And we tweaked the whole dissemination strategy last minute. We used the film on twitter and created the automated bot. In less than 5 days, we thought of this, we implemented it and we launched it for the whole national on national day. By choosing twitter, we turned each Saudi on twitter into our own micro news channel. Every time they retweeted the Aramco national day film, they received a reply tweet from an automated bot that directed them to one of the 14 nation- wide projects Aramco was still fueling. The retweets were catchy, simple and written in the form of positive news headlines, targeting each Saudi directly. We had a web of positive news circulating and taking over the social media conversation on national day.

List the results (30% of vote)

Our video was the most viewed video on national day. And our campaign hashtag was trending even days after the national day. Our campaign collected more than 90 million impressions. Reaching 99% of the nation with our positive message. This is how Aramco powered the whole nation, with strength to persevere… on national day. • 90 Million Impressions • 13 million+ video views in the first week • The hashtag trended within the top 5 for 4 days • 95% positive sentiment across the nation. 4% increase in global brand health index.