2022 Winners & Shortlists

Background

2021 was economically tough on Saudi Arabia. Incomes were reduced and sales tax increased significantly. For the first time in the Kingdom, many people were on a budget. Zain, one of Saudi’s leading telecom providers, created affordable bundles to help people get through these tough times. But Saudis couldn’t see value in them, yet, because Saudis didn’t know how to save, yet. Saudis come from generations of abundance. That means they can sometimes be careless spenders. For example, they might pay and subscribe to a streaming website, and not notice that they already get it for free, as part of another bundle. So, how could they see value in the new Zain affordable bundles, if they were broke, from purchasing other things, that well.. were useless? We needed to educate them so they could truly benefit from our Shabab bundles.

Describe the strategy

Introducing the Zain ‘Save Your Pocket Association’. Here to stop Saudis from buying useless things during these tight times with 24/7 online presence. We launched an entire program that monitors, halts and advises on people’s spending. Literally saving their pockets from their bad decisions. We used 5 online integrated channels, to interrupt the buying cycle at every point. Each channel was strategically chosen to be present at the point of either consideration, impulse, browsing, sale and post-sale. We were there at the point of purchase, stopping the purchase. At the point of impulse, helping them halt the impulse. At the point of consideration, halting the consideration. When they were browsing, helping them make better choices. We were even there at the point of no return, after the purchase, with swapping solutions.

Describe the execution

To bring the problem to the surface, we created a web series that comically highlighted the different personas of over spenders. Episode 1: The garshee3 family. The heroes of the 1st of 6 films. They are a typical family of hoarders and buyers of useless items. From the comfort of their home they order and get delivered the most useless of items. But like any good Saudi family, the wife supports the husband in all his hobbies, even in his over spending. This film and the 5 others were spread on social and online. They were targeted at over spenders on their websites and shows. The films were the door to a fully integrated online campaign that interrupted every point of the buying cycle with the Zain Save Your Pocket Association: targeted ads, a website and a swapping program.

List the results

We successfully interrupted an entire buying cycle. We were literally everywhere and Saudis saw us everywhere. 1100% increase in sales of bundle subscriptions 91 Million Impressions 36 Million Engagement 31M Views with a completion rate 2x higher than industry’s average 1 whole Kingdom, on a new budget mindset.