Objectives

Saudi Arabia is at a pivotal moment of societal change. Since the appointment of Saudi Arabia’s new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, immense change had been in the air for all Saudi Women.

To become relevant again to women in the MENAPT region, Glade relaunched their brand in a way that understood and acknowledged the change that was taking place.

Glade launched their first-ever culturally-scented fragrance, Elegant Amber and Oud, and became one of the most successful examples in Glade history of adapting a global platform to a local market, in an authentic and relevant way.

Background

Glade, a multinational fragrance brand, had become stagnant in the ultra-competitive MENAPT (Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey) region.

Glade needed to become relevant again with consumers in this culturally-driven region, relaunch the brand to drive growth, and launch a new, Middle Eastern-inspired fragrance. All in an authentic and relatable way.

Insights

“Vision 2030”, set by the new crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, is reshaping Saudi Arabia (affectionately known as The Kingdom), driving immense change for Women in Saudi Arabia.

From government to technology, cultural and historical gender roles are being shaken up.

Change is literally in the air for women. The decades-old driving ban was lifted in 2018, and each day opens new possibilities for women.

They can now drive, attend concerts, go to sporting events, and see a movie at the theatre for the first time since the 1980’s. Women are part of the change.

Our campaign harnessed this new dawn, with Glade acting as a catalyst for Saudi women to express their hopes for the future.

Strategy 

At this pivotal moment of societal change, we saw the opportunity to celebrate the dawn of new freedoms for Saudi women. Glade launched Elegant Amber and Oud - its first ever culturally-fueled scent.

Building on the human truth that people’s hopes and dreams are often better expressed for their children than for themselves, we launched a long-form film which introduced Baby Abeer (Abeer meaning “fragrance” in Arabic) - a symbolic baby girl who would inspire women to dream bigger, hope higher, and stretch further than they ever thought possible.

To do this, we propelled the creative across our three-pronged communications strategy to: Birth Abeer (awareness), Nurture Abeer (consideration) & Grow Abeer (consumption and conversion).

Every touchpoint connected with the wave of cultural change in the market, capturing women in every medium that was “new” for them, so they truly believed Glade understood who they were and the change taking place.

Execution 

Birthing Abeer:

The film was launched with a domination of the only cinema in Riyadh.

We took over female-only gym screens and large mall billboards near key retailers and were unmissable across high-reaching female digital platforms and social media.

Nurturing Abeer:

Women shared stories of their past and their hopes for the future with the hashtag #InspireHope.

Local female influencers shared their wishes and encouraged fans to join at a custom in-store activation.

Growing Abeer:

On International Women’s Day, we partnered with Saudi’s largest female social platform – Snapchat – creating the first-ever Snapchat Lens triggered by a user’s eyes - enabling women to make a wish for the future whilst wearing a niqab. Snapchat then read her expression and turned it into a custom wish.

Wishes from social platforms were also curated and released on a custom world lens in which Saudi women’s wishes for Abeer filled the sky around them.

Results

Glade increased sales by 13% year-on-year and increased the brand’s market share by 1.6%.

On digital, we over-delivered on expected reach by 45% with a video completion rate of 20%, substantially higher-than-industry benchmarks, and reached more than 10MM women in Saudi Arabia on digital and social platforms alone.

Our custom Snapchat execution delivered +200% more impressions than planned, driving an eCPM 4-times more efficient than contracted, and generated more engagement than Snapchat has EVER seen. Dwell time with the Glade lens was around 40 seconds, as compared to a Snapchat benchmark of 10-20 seconds.

We also strengthened relationships with our customers, as key retailers have partnered exclusively with Glade, bringing Baby Abeer to shelf and lending us additional real estate instore and on their digital and social channels.

Change is in the air for the women of Saudi Arabia and our previously irrelevant brand is a driving force behind it.