The brief was that Raffaello wanted to implement a consumer promotion based on brand values and not value-for-money. They wanted to genuinely connect with women in the Arab world; without being another brand that attempts to connect on a superficial level. May sound like an easy task. However there is a reason most brands avoid this challenge. The conservative cultural set up is an unspoken truth within these communities. The culture does not allow women to speak freely, even in private, for fear of repercussions. Attempting to challenge the status quo would be sensitive and potentially very dangerous for not only the brand reputation, but more importantly for this audience. Allowing women in this region discover their own ‘self’ in a safe environment hence became the idea.

A microsite was launched to enable users to invite their friends through Facebook to help discover them. Friends had to choose words that described the user and then transformed into beautiful medallions that could be shared on social media. These also turned into pendants in white gold for weekly winners. In parallel, an emotional video on Facebook made women think about themselves and as a result inspired them to engage like never before.

When it comes to freedom of speech, the media in the Arab world and more particularly in Saudi Arabia is very influenced by the religious restrictions as well as the geo-political agenda; it is typically very common for these two to go hand-in-hand. As a result, freedom of speech and calls for reform, especially if cultural, is very much filtered by these state owned media to make sure everyone and everything remains in order.

More specifically on the consumer activation front, it is a mandate to apply for and be granted an approval to run a piece of communication on the ground.

We suspected our campaign would potentially empower women to express themselves beyond the cultural limitations, we thus decided to utilize the flexibility and transparency of the digital spectrum to engage with our consumers in a bid to stimulate an open and honest conversation that is far from the influence of cultural norms.

The business objectives were to increase brand awareness riding on the values of the brand and increase fan base organically.

The campaign touched the lives of thousands of Arab women and this is only the beginning of giving them the voice they need. In just the first month the fan base increased by 160% and 64,063 Arab women voiced who they truly were. That wasn’t all; as a result sales also grew by 67% in two of the leading markets – Saudi Arabia and GCC.

Long-term Ambition: Raffaello wants to continue being a part of every Arab woman’s life and not just be a commodity.

The cultural and social climate for women is beautifully summarized with a 2014 article called ‘The Burden of Being Female in Saudi Arabia’ in which Haifaa al-Mansour (director of the first Saudi film, “Wadjda”) said “for me it’s the everyday life, how it’s hard … things like that can build up and break a woman.” Another article lists ‘Eleven things women in Saudi Arabia can't do’, many of which are part of daily lives anywhere else in the world. Some of these are - go anywhere without a male chaperone, drive a car (most famously known), go for a swim, compete freely in sports, try on clothes when shopping apart from unusual restrictions like buying a Barbie or reading an uncensored fashion magazine. According to The World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report, 2014 ranked Saudi Arabia 130th out of 142 countries for gender parity. Women occupy only 13% of Saudi workforce despite accounting for 51 percent of Saudi graduates.

Our campaign. No. Our cultural ambition looked to do just that – help them see the brighter side – by making them recognize their self-identities beyond their stereotypical roles, being within a safe environment. We achieved this through a delicately designed campaign that pushes boundaries enough to meet our objective and genuine purpose, yet without creating a revolution.

Bearing in mind the cultural environment, the strategy was to design a campaign that seemed like an innocent online activation to the cultural onlookers, yet be smart enough for women to understand that this is an open safe space for them to express their feelings.

The campaign was kicked off with a video asking Arab women a simple question ‘who are you?’. Most answers were “I’m mother of…”, reflecting the cultural aspect that after they become mums their title changes from them being called by their names, to “Mother of…”. We needed them to recognize their self-identities. Even when repeatedly asked we discovered that women often defined themselves depending on their relationship with people around them and from what people expected of them. This video got women to ask themselves the same question and as a result they started pouring their hearts out. Then a microsite was launched to enable users to invite their friends through Facebook to help discover their true selves. Friends had to choose words that described the user. These words transformed into beautiful medallions that could be shared on social media and also turned into pendants in white gold for weekly winners.

Raffaello is made up of a combination of four delicate distinctive layers just like the different roles a woman plays in her life. All these layers together makes Raffaello unique. This also symbolises The Raffaello brand character also values freedom, purity and originality.