Almarai Changes the Status Quo

Saudi dairy company Almarai recently launched a poignant film on the highly sensitive issue of breastfeeding. In partnership with Leo Burnett KSA, who created the film, the company rolled out the campaign in early February to address the growing trend amongst Saudi mothers who are resolving to other alternatives when it comes to breastfeeding their newborns.

This trend was fuelled by a lack of accessible information available to new mothers regarding the vast benefits of such a practice, which is considered extremely private and almost never discussed in public. The campaign focused on one simple idea: “The best milk for your baby cannot be purchased,” which says it all coming from the largest dairy producer in the Arab world.

Shot in black and white, the 80-second online film captures the emotions of a new mother who desires the very best for her baby. The film explored all the emotions a newborn inspires and in turn created unprecedented conversations amongst its citizens at a national and public level. Though there were no explicit scenes to speak of, there was a brief instant where a woman is seen lovingly breastfeeding her child while narrating, in a soft low-pitched voice, the beauty and joy of providing the best for ‘something’ so fragile and precious.

Within a week of launch, the film went viral on social media with over 45 million views, making it the second most shared video in the world at almost 1.3 million shares so far. On top of that, the brand’s Facebook page became the fastest growing page in the world, garnering over 39,000 new fans a day. This made Almarai the third most popular FMCG brand on the social network preceded only by Nestle and P&G.

The subject, which was tackled with great care and sensitivity, has managed to boldly challenge the status quo with a campaign that has garnered a great deal of buzz, resulting in a tremendous wave of support for breastfeeding in the kingdom.