FROM THE GRAND PRIX WINNERS

FEDERICO MARIANI + ALBERTO TRIANA, SENIOR CREATIVE TEAM, TBWA\RAAD

After being the first to react to the announcement of the royal decree in KSA, we noticed there was still a significant portion of men opposed to Saudi women driving. While our competitors were jumping immediately into the selling, we needed to embrace this brief differently. We needed to empower women, give them confidence and put them first in the communication – even before the brand itself.

We needed the campaign to connect with women in a very genuine way, and that’s how the idea came to life, inviting them to their first ever driving lesson with an emotional turn – the instructors would be the people they thought would never approve in the first place: dads, husbands and brothers. This twist was key to giving Saudi women the confidence they needed, along with a powerful message: “The decision to drive or not drive is entirely yours.”

The automotive category is very sales-driven, not only in this region but all over the world. The jury must have seen how brave our client was to approach this relevant topic by thinking about Saudi women first, before trying to sell cars. On the other hand, the campaign is very relevant and heart-warming, so definitely that must have affected the voting. And last but not least, this emotional campaign gave us outstanding results and extremely positive responses within Saudi, from both men and women. We think all those reasons, and the fact that Nissan, not an NGO, backed the campaign, made the jury give us maximum recognition. Nowadays, advertising is more about how brands connect with people on an emotional level rather that interrupt their routines with annoying and intrusive ads.