Gaming is a major media industry in Saudi Arabia. However, 5% of Saudi e-athletes are girls, and due to lack of role models in a male-dominated world, and in a culture where females pursuing gaming as a profession isn't an acceptable norm. 87% of girl gamers quit gaming before turning 18.

So, Nivea helped shine the light - creating an e-sports coaching platforms by Saudi female e-athletes for future Saudi female-athletes, inspiring young girls that they too had got game.

By creating a safe and inclusive space for female gamers, Nivea was able to address societal and cultural challenges, and promote a positive message of collective inspiration and action.

As a result, more Saudi female gamers started stepping out into the limelight, with one of them crowned the first-ever female e-football champion in the world.

Additionally, the government also supported the cause, building female gaming spaces to further bolster inclusion.

Nivea wanted to earn a more meaningful role in Saudi Arabia - the biggest market in the growing Middle East region for brands in its category.

Nivea has always been a brand that cares about women.

But it hadn't really acted upon its brand ethos in Saudi Arabia in a meaningful manner yet.

Having reformulated its global brand to focus on the “transformative power of the human touch", how could Nivea reintroduce itself with its human touch to the Saudi market, in particular, young Saudi women in a meaningful, distinctive, culturally relevant and culturally additive way?

As a global brand, Nivea need to earn their way into local culture. Nivea needed to seeing how its essence of 'care' and 'human touch' worked FOR Saudi Arabia and its young women audience (and not IN Saudi Arabia).

About 90% of male gamers take part in esports on an amateur or semi-pro basis, while around 100 Saudi gamers are pursuing e-sports as a full-time career.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia unveiled investments worth SR142 billion ($37.8 billion) to transform the Kingdom into a global gaming hub with world-class gaming companies.

The government hopes to create 39,000 jobs, establish 250 game developers, and promote a thriving in-house talent pool for esports that will raise the sector’s contribution to the Kingdom’s economy to SR50 billion by 2030.

It was a burgeoning industry that lacked adequate female representation until 2022.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia has strict media regulations that have affected Saudi women’s interests, including gaming.

Female gamers would have to adhere to dress code guidelines and were not allowed to compete with male gamers in public.

Streaming platforms like Twitch were blocked in 2019 but lifted in 2021.

Saudi female gamers face civil liberty issues such as restricted freedom of expression, lack of representation in the gaming industry, gender-based discrimination, mobility restrictions, and online harassment.

Nivea has long cared for women’s skin, but to truly connect to young Saudi women, we took its care to a deeper level.

We persuaded Nivea to venture into gaming and show its care for Saudi girl gamers.

"GIRLS GOT GAME": THE FIRST-EVER E-SPORTS COACHING PLATFORM FOR SAUDI GIRL GAMERS BY SAUDI GIRL GAMERS.

We enabled Nivea to become a beacon of care for Saudi girl gamers, making them feel more inspired in their gaming skins.

We did so by partnering with Saudi Arabia’s top women e-athletes, and for the first time, created an e-sports coaching platform for Saudi girls.

In doing so, showcased Saudi women e-athletes for the first time, and in turn, gave young Saudi girls new role models.

Nivea needed to reach young Saudi women, aged 16-24, via social media channels to increase awareness, build a connection and drive product purchase.

In a time when Saudi women were being empowered in the real world, they were being left behind and not included in the gaming world.

With only 5% of e-athletes being women, Saudi girls stated in 1-to-1 interviews, how they were not inspired to take on careers in gaming in what they felt was a male-dominated world.

They lacked female role models and mentors in the gaming world. And couldn’t see themselves pursuing a career in gaming.

As a result:

87% of Saudi girl gamers quit gaming before they turned 18.

This was an inequality in the industry and the world of gaming that needed to be addressed by Nivea - a brand that cared for women and believed in the transformative power of that care.

We designed and built a platform served as a first-of-its-kind e-sports coaching portal that spanned across YouTube, Twitch, Discord and TikTok.

Through it we were able to showcase inspiring e-athletes and allow them to inspire young girl gamers.

MAKING IT AN ENTERTAINING GAMING AND UPLIFTING EXPERIENCE:

The e-athlete coaches shared their personal gaming tactics, tricks and special techniques, while importantly, encouraging young girl gamers to keep playing and keep honing their gaming skills.

They also shared their skincare routines and their preferred Nivea products, in a very organic and natural manner, while speaking about the gameplay, thereby integrating brand conversations too.

The Girls Got Game platform spanned the course of 9 months with dozens of featured e-athletes sharing their stories, coaching likeminded gamers, and streaming entertaining gameplay.

WE SPARKED NATIONAL ATTENTION:

Seeding popular gaming forums, male gamers and media platforms, we made Nivea's Saudi girl gamers seen, noted and famous.

Nivea became the first mover in the gaming territory in a category where competitors were engaging young Saudi girls elsewhere on expected channels with expected topics.

Girls Got Game put Nivea on the minds of young female Saudi gamers. And as more female gamers emerged to shine amidst a male-dominated industry, Nivea drove positive change:

• Popular gaming forums, male gamers and media platforms supported the initiative from Nivea.

• The Saudi Government and affiliated bodies got involved and took action too.

• Saudi gaming federation openly endorsed participation of female gamers in tournaments and launching gaming and coaching zones.

• Tournaments and festivals exclusively aimed at women, such as Girl Gamer, got designed to include women and create more opportunities for female gamers.

• Industry leaders and creators at The Next World Forum in Riyadh called on more protection, tournaments and promotion for women in online gaming and esports.