Saudi Telecom Company’s (STC) “Unveil Saudi” campaign by J. Walter Thompson Saudi Arabia has won WARC’s Special, Long-Term Idea award, and Gold, for its content strategy that demonstrated achievement of brand business goals. The WARC Awards scheme is a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness. The Special Long-Term Idea Award in particular, recognises content strategy that has delivered sustained success for a brand, and is awarded only once in the year.
The “Unveil Saudi” campaign was launched to reinforce STC’s supremacy in network coverage across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Using a team of photographers to capture never-before-seen content in the country, stories from remote lowland villages to mist covered mountain tops; traditional artforms to showcasing modern Saudi art; magnificent rock carved tombs to colourful local markets; were uploaded whilst on location to the “Unveil Saudi” platform. The content was leveraged across social media, out of home advertising and TVCs to promote STC’s story. The “Unveil Saudi” platform’s success led to Saudi ministries using the content to highlight the nation’s assets, and perception of network strength increased by 17%.
Commenting on the WARC global award, Ahmed AlSahhaf, General Manager, Consumer Marketing Communication at STC said, “Everyone in Saudi expect brands to perform well online, particularly the youth. To demonstrate STC’s ability to deliver on this, we tapped into the need for authentic experiences relevant to peoples’ perspectives. Each eye-catching photo or video unveiled Saudi in a whole new way, through a diverse range of images capturing the beauty, culture and history of the country. The campaign has set an entirely new benchmark in the Kingdom for live demonstration of a network’s power and re-shaped the way people can look at Saudi Arabia.”