2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

The ‘Holiday Blues’ were overwhelming in 2020 as a raging pandemic was sweeping the globe and celebrations were cancelled as families had to spend days in isolation, and it was no different in Saudi Arabia. Eid, a Muslim festivity, is celebrated with big gatherings & the passing of “Eidiya”, a ritual where elder members of the family distribute cash presents to their daughters, sons and grandchildren. But last year, this was completely off the table given the pandemic. So, the Saudi Telcom Company, owner of stc pay, a digital wallet which allows users to transfer,receive, and manage their money using just a smartphone, was not going to let the Kingdom of Islam be deprived of traditions and prosperity. We had an objective to utilize the fintech application to keep the spirit of Eid alive and spread joy among 100,000 Muslims in the country using the transfer feature. (stc pay data)

Describe the creative idea

Repackage the person-to-person transfer button to “give a contactless Eidiya” one. Considering the importance of this tradition to Saudis we weren’t about to let this be another normal transfer, it had to be personalized. The new Eidiya feature not only allowed consumers to transfer cash instantly, but users could also write a personal message with each one. And it wasn’t just cash, users can send gift cards from the stores within the application’s marketplace such as Spotify, iTunes, PlayStation store and many more. To encourage people to use it, we communicated across social platforms such as Twitter & YouTube telling consumers “Because we do this every year, it won’t change this year” alongside educational infographics on how to use the service. Sometimes, all it takes is simply knowing when to be there for people. For STC pay and for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that when was Eid 2020

Describe the strategy

Contactless payments witnessed a surge during the pandemic as 77% of Saudis adapted to digital payments to safely conduct daily transactions, we were in the midst of a cultural shift as 69% of them finally trusted paying with mobile wallets (source: Visa KSA), a staggering number for a usually conservative nation. We targeted Saudi households, whether it’s parents who needed to make the day still special for the kids, or millennials who wanted to brighten up the day for friends. Consumers won’t individually request an IBAN, add, confirm, transfer, wait 1-3 business days to give away Eidiyas, so traditional banks had absolutely no leverage. Eid was about to be compromised, but as 92% of the Saudi population are smartphone users (Hootsuite) there was real opportunity to save this holiday with the stc pay application by repackaging the transfer experience.

Describe the execution

We wanted to achieve maximum results in a short amount of time and with a limited budget, to do so, we only used the channels which can serve a dual purpose. For example, through programmatic we could target 1st party data (stc pay users) through the display banners to aware them about the service whilst at the same time the campaign would be optimized to drive more clicks and eventually in-app activity. We also used learnings from previous campaigns which were targeting the same audience & focused on social channels that have previously been strong at driving actions which were Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The campaign ran for less than a week from the 22nd of May until the 27th, leveraging the time Saudis were most excited about Eidiya.

List the results

We were able to keep spirits high during the Eid holiday, as consumers embraced the service as a new way to send Eidiyas: • In the first three days 350,000 Eidiya transfers were made. • Within 10 days we had over 408,200 app installs • And 34, 352, 804.64 SR (over 9 million USD) in cash transfers. Online, the response was overwhelmingly positive: • On Facebook & Instagram we reached record impressions: 3,315,030 Impressions, 843,648 people reached, 16,424 Clicks, 30,098 views with a 23% completion rate. • And great engagement on Twitter: 882,711 Impressions, 110,650 Views, 12,958 engagements. And within the application (UAC) we achieved: 2,260,248 Impressions, 16,147 Clicks