Media is about the when, where and how a brand should go to market and create experiences that drive mental availability, but more importantly engage audiences to improve purchase consideration and loyalty. Across all these dimensions Jibnet Abu Al Walad challenged traditional category dynamics achieving sales share growth with almost no investment against a category where market share was driven primarily by SOV and physical distribution.

This work identified a new audience to drive growth and went about engaging with them in places and spaces their competitors had never been before.

Jibnet Abu Al Walad (JAW) was one of the first brands to enter the cheese market in the early 80’s with the triangle portion (TP) format, an innovation at the time.

However, for several years the cheese segment has been in decline, with almost a 50% drop in sales in the last 5 years, meaning the segment, and our brand lost its relevancy in Oman. Causing a consistent loss of share and equity, with low levels of top-of-mind awareness (4% JAW vs 32% Almarai and 29% Puck) we became a forgotten brand. (1)(2)

The category was dominated by Almarai and Puck with a combined 60% market share (26% Almarai, 34% Puck) vs. 11% for JAW.

The market share was supported by aggressive paid media investment that resulted in a combined share of voice of 72% (54% Almarai, 18% Puck) vs. no paid media investment for our brand. (3)

Every player in the market is targeting mothers and focusing on owning key occasions like breakfast or cooking, with long-term investments.

We conducted ethnographic research on the look for the everyday insights, laying just beneath the radar of any formal study to identify an opportunity for Jibnet Abu Al Walad to leverage.

Our on-ground endeavours reinforced the brands struggle, yet revealed one seemingly overlooked consumption occasion…(1)

Popular amongst youth culture, the Omani sandwich, was a local food icon with unknown origins. A delicious quick bite, made at home or grabbed from the street vendors, the sandwich was anything but sophisticated:

Bread + cream cheese + Chips Oman + a little hot sauce.

As one of the first cheese brands in the market many people remembered us as a key ingredient in their sandwich. But as the market evolved, any association with the brand faded away.

STRATEGY: Connect with the Omani youth by making the brand a subject of conversation through the connection with the Omani Sandwich.

NO CHEESE BRAND OWNED THE OMANI SANDWICH.

The Omani sandwich is super popular amongst the youth in Oman, it’s easy to make, it’s delicious and it had the ingredients people love. No cheese brand has tried to own the occasion. So, our strategy was focused on owning the Omani Sandwich by creating association between the sandwich and Jibnet Abu Al Walad as the original ingredient.

WHAT’S THE ORIGIN OF THE FAMOUS SANDWICH?

Even though the sandwich is a national food icon, no one knows its origin and that was a benefit for us. Who can prove that Jibnet Abu Al Walad wasn’t the original ingredient? Right, no one. So, we decided to leverage this and start a nation-wide conversation about who invented the sandwich.

(1) – TEASER: We launched a teaser triggering intrigue about the sandwich’s origins – the first brand to ask this question.

(2) – ONLINE FILM: We launched a brand film, highlighting some of the most outrageous origin stories we had come across during our market visits. No matter how different everyone’s origin stories were, everyone agreed that the original taste came from JAW.

(3) – SOCIAL MEDIA: Continuing the conversation on social about who invented the sandwich, the platforms became the forum for debate with people arguing about their version.

(4) – OUT-OF-HOME: On-the-ground communications took the conversation nationwide, driving people into the store to make the original Omani Sandwich with JAW.

(5) – RADIO: On one of the most popular radio channels amongst the Omani youth, fuelling debate through a competition.

(5) – INSTORE: Point-of-sale communication reinforced JAW’s position as the original taste for the iconic snack.

This campaign leveraged the most popular Omani food icon, we positioned the brand as culturally relevant, re-instilled a deep connection with people's lifestyle and behaviours making Jibnet Abu Al Walad a loved brand again. Understanding local values increased by 9x vs. pre-campaign period. Essential ingredient to the Omani sandwich increased 17x vs. pre-campaign period.

The campaign sparked a big conversation on social media platforms where the engagement rate was 5x higher than industry benchmarks. Consumers were debating, reacting, commenting, and sharing their love. Market share increased by 19% from 11.5% to 13.7%, the highest jump within a single month for the brand. Increase in top-of-mind awareness doubled (from 4% to 9%) spontaneous awareness increased by 40% (30% to 42%) consideration increased by 31% while it dropped for the competition.