2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

In a heavily contested market, Nova was losing ground to competitors presenting themselves as hip and trendy, or heavily hammering on discounts. As a leader anda premium brand, Nova needed to play on its own turf. So, we focused on a more profound and distinct differentiator: Nova is uniquely sourced from deep wells in the heart of Saudi deserts. This was translated into an epic long term platform celebratingSaudi’s nature, geology, generosity, and its jewel “Nova”; enabling the brand to move from tactical category communication while improving unity amongSaudis by becoming their “Pride”; effectively increasing market share by 1%.

Background

When Nova was launched in 1990’s, few other bottled water brands existed in Saudi. Throughout the years, the brand’s consistency, quality, and excellence reflected a premium image, and made it the category leader. However, with time, the market became saturated with 300+ brands all competing in a segment which was slightly diminishing in volume due to the economic uncertainty of 2018/19. Together with heavy communication from several players trying to own the image of being “hip and trendy” and brands focusing on “health claims In a heavily contested market, Nova was losing ground to competitors. Our objective was to Improve Nova’s awareness among the general public

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

This created a more profound and existential challenge: For many Saudis, and especially the young ones, Nova was slowly becoming irrelevant. Our main objective was to recapture the attention of Saudis, regain their vote of confidence and certify Nova’s premium image and position in a sea of competing brands Our audience is the general public in Saudi, especially those looking for quality,reassurance and excellence. However, while we wanted to target everyone, our focus was on the younger demographics who are becoming less attached with Nova. they live in a quickly transforming Saudi that seems a lot different than a generation ago. A nation with a more liberal society, and a focus on “Saudi nationalism” rather than on “Islam” as a social driver and identity . Saudis, young and old are looking for brands that reflects their “renewed” identity and attitude towards life and mirrors their pride in their rising nation.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Nova: A uniquely Saudi water coming from Nofod Sa’ad desert; from the heart of the Kingdom.Traditionally, water communication in Saudi was defined as being Very product-centric - There was a Lack of messaging about the water sources as most bottled waterbrands in KSA are desalinated sea water. In contrast to the category, Nova has worked hard for decades to provide the best bottled water in KSA. A water known for its unique and crisp taste. Water that is sourced from deep artesian wells in a remote desert aquifer which is a 100 Km away from human presence, in Nofod Sa’ad; An area previously known by Caravans for its freshwater wells. This gave us our insight and true differentiator: Nova is not any water, but a pure Saudi water and treasure coming from the heart of nature and the heart of men and women working relentlessly to provide thebest drinkable

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Instead of talking about inaccurate health benefits or trying to be cool and hip, we ended up celebrating Saudi Arabia’s natural wonders, beauty and the abundant, yet hidden natural resources like Nova water. We created a long term platform crafted by nature, brought to life in a film that poetically takes us on a journey through time, geology, culture and nature of Saudi, a story about generosity, about the Kingdom, about its hidden treasures and less known jewels. To cover the digital space, our campaign was launched on various social channels:those owned by Nova or simply through promoted tweets, ads and posts. Online was heavily used to reach the youth.Anghami, which is a popular music service like Spotify was also leveraged to reach the younger demographics of KSA.In parallel, the campaign was released on outdoor Mupis, on rebranded Nova trucks along with in-store branding covering major malls and grocery

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

we were able to foster as sense of pride in Saudi, paint Nova with an image of being a pure natural water,while successfully linking the brand to the roots of the land..A 10.9% increase in sales, improved Nova’s unaided awareness from 63% in 2019 to 70% by 2021, which is 11.2% higher than 2019 Prior to 2019 research, Nova had the highest brand awareness with 98%, however, the unaided awareness scored 63%. After the campaign was launched, the overall brand awareness went to 100% while the unaided jumped to 70%. Both TOM and unaided awareness are currently 10.3% higher than Nova’s nearest competitor.

Please tell us about the long term strategic planning

All of Nova's communication will fall under "From the heart of this land".