Houbara Communications & Markettiers - Innovation in Media Relations

Company: Houbara Communications & markettiers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Company Description: Houbara Communications & markettiers - A Year on the Road campaign is an integrated creative and content-driven communications consultancy. Operating In the region for over 30 years, we have over 30 consultants in our Dubai office. markettiers MENA is the leading Broadcast PR agency in Dubai focusing on bringing the mastery of broadcast communications, social media, podcasting and live streaming
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Media Relations

Nomination Title: Houbara Communications & markettiers - A Year on the Road campaign

Provide an essay of up to 625 words describing the nominated innovative achievements since July 1 2018:

On 24th June 2019, a year on from the driving ban lift for women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, almost 50,000 driving licenses had been issued to females – a huge milestone in the automotive history of the country. However, Volkswagen Middle East identified the need to unite female car enthusiasts in the same way that their male counterparts already had been. Thus, another landmark moment took place in the history of female drivers - thefirst everfemale car club in KSA was established.

To raise awareness of this and drive real engagement with female consumers, an innovative communications campaign that spanned the whole of the GCC was devised and executed by Grayling and markettiers.

Research, strategy & planning

Our research highlighted there was a clear gap in the market and a desire for female car enthusiasts in Saudi to share their passion for driving in the same way that their fathers, brothers, or husbands have been doing. We knew that there were female car clubs in other markets, like the Arabian Gazelles, however, none existed in KSA.

Our strategy:

-Implement a dynamic media relations campaign that would showcase the VW Women’s Club story
-Communicatehow the lifting of the ban has changed their lives and how coming together as a club makes them feel unified, empowered and recognized
-Collaborate with Volkswagen owner, Ammal Farahat,one of the first ever Careem captainahs (drivers)to be the ‘face and voice’ for the campaign, capturing the attention and the hearts of audiences and ensuring the ‘real people’ element remains central to telling the campaign story
-Underpin Volkswagen’s commitment to be a brand with people at its core

We knew the anniversary would be a busy media space, so planned a campaign that would land on the historic milestone date, but perhaps most importantly, one that offered an evolved story about progression, independence and female empowerment.

Execution

Video News Release (VNR) in English and Arabic utilised for regional media sell in’s. The VNR content reflects human interest and positions VW as supporting stakeholder stories, an interview with the club members Ammal and also highlight how VW is bringing together a community of female car enthusiasts.

Innovative Media Relations: Highlighting how coming together as club has made the women feel empowered, unified and recognised. We offered the story to media under embargo to ensure that the story hit on the one-year anniversary of Saudi women driving

Spokesperson identification –Ammal Farahat was a key spokesperson used for interviews

Social Media Edits – 30-60 seconds edits used to engage and inspire the communityand initiate conversations on an important news subject

High production values & creativity through content -  The team travelled to Jeddah to capture all content in 24 hours - parts of the VNR were produced in a moving car

Results

-A 25%sales increase in the 8 weeks after the campaign specifically to female customers, indicating a direct commercial impact on the KSA business
- A 70% increase in sign-ups to the KSA women’s car club with members now hailing from Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah
- GCC media cut through across business, lifestyle and automotive trade media
- Securing an exclusive with Harper’s Bazaar which landed on the year milestone anniversary
- 115 pieces of coverage reaching an audience of 227.8 million across the GCC including key markets of KSA, Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain
- 25 piecesof top tier broadcast coverage with a circulation of 17.4 million including Cosmopolitan Middle East and Vogue Arabia
- Over 814, 000 viewson social media, with 76, 000 watching at least 50% of the video

The success of this campaign is the direct link to car sales, with a total of 133 cars being sold to women in the months following the campaign, with no other marketing activity.