Insight
Saudi Arabia is a very conservative country, one where tribal and family customs as well as traditions run through every facet of daily life.
Mindshare MENA's challenge came about in the clash between the market composition and the brand attitude:how do they launch a provocative global brand in a traditionally conservative market, respecting Saudi culture while staying true to Infiniti’s non-conformist DNA?
Strategy
Two major insights were the essense behind shaping the successful launch campaign of Infiniti in KSA: the Media Insight as well as the Cultural Insight
Media Insight
It was essential to identify the best touch points to use for the agency's communication in order to ensure the much needed maximum engagement. They concluded that the top most essential entity to partner up with for the Saudi market would be Twitter. It was absolutely no surprise that this medium ranked highest on the list of their must haves - this social outlet in Saudi Arabia enjoys the highest penetration globally. With 8.2 million users, Twitter is used by 30% of the total Saudi population.
While partnering up with the most powerful social platform in KSA, Mindshare MENA still needed to make sure that their communication showed that they understood and respected the culture of Saudi Arabia.
As both a foreigner and a latecomer, Infiniti had to ensure that the agency's communication proved they fully understood and respected the culture of Saudi Arabia. This is where the Insight came in: who knows Saudi culture and customs better than Saudis themselves?
Saudi Arabian families are well known for their hospitality, welcoming foreign visitors with boundless generosity. In fact, in Saudi culture, it is not unusual for a host to invite visitors to stay right in his own home.
The agency's idea and strategy was to put their brand in the hands of Saudis and ask them to host and launch Infiniti in KSA; from Saudis to Saudis.
Execution
The creative brand experience started by giving the Infiniti lineup to a respected Saudi family to host each week. Throughout the week, that family took their Infiniti to key locations across the city as they had their own stories and memories to tell, which Mindshare MENA revealed on Youtube, Facebook, and in advertorials across major media.
To make sure the campaign was social by design, the agency created a digital map of KSA which showcased these stories. Each time a new location was filmed, the same area on the map lit up.
Minsdshare MENA then took their map and amplified it by partnering with the strongest social media outlet in KSA, Twitter, to run the region’s first competition of its kind. On a weekly basis, #itstimeforInfiniti tweets were published with embedded videos of the Saudi user generated content and pushed up for re-tweets.Several winners walked away with a GoPro camera with a quest asking them to document key locations across KSA to increase the amplification of Saudi generated content in co-operation with Infiniti.
The competition partnership had served two objectives:
• Maximizing the number of lights on the map, with more than 20,000 retweets
• The retweets made Infiniti the top trending topic on Twitter throughout the launch period
• Exposed the Saudi family content to more than 6 million people through embedding family-generated videos in the pushed tweets
• The total duplicated reach of the Twitter campaign was 13.8 million, while the total number of Twitter users is 8.2 million (so in theory, the agency reached everyone on twitter almost more than once)
Results
While respecting the Saudi mindset of doing things their way, and staying true to the Infiniti DNA of doing things differently, the results of this campaign exceeded all set KPIS qualitatively and most notably, the campaign will always have a point of reference: A digital map, signed and lit by more than 20,000 Saudis welcoming INFINITI to their kingdom.
Qualitative Social KPI’s
• Buzz: The most talked-about premium brand in KSA (source: map by SYSOMOS – July 2014)
• Online mentions: 35% of total share of mentions (the highest between all competitors) (source: map by SYSOMOS – July 2014)
• Facebook: Highest engagement rate in premium automotive category (source: Social bakers)
• Twitter: The highest Twitter engagement for INFINITI global (source: twitter analytics)
• Earned media: $550,000 worth of earned media
Sales Results
• Sales: 187% increase in sales (Source: MEAC, 2013 – YTD 2014)
• Significance: Biggest market share for INFINITI global (Source: INFINITI Business Unit)