Celebrating our creative excellence

The Effie Awards celebrates the world’s most effective marketing campaigns. It’s a tough competition, with the best of the best competing for the coveted Gold awards. In November, Finish, Dettol and Durex walked away with the top prizes, in collaboration with creative agency partners McCann and Havas.

The recipe for success? A compelling brand fight coupled with our superior solutions! Our new way of doing marketing allows us to build brands through creative that truly makes an impact.

Finish Turkey - Tomorrow’s Water (Gold, European Effie Awards) and The Water Promise (Gold, MENA Effie Awards)

The campaign was born out of a series of important facts:

• Turkey will be water poor by 2030
• 9/10 households have dishwashers
• We still waste millions of tons of water on pre-rinsing dishes – in fact, 50% of people pre-rinse their dishes

And we all agree that water is too precious to waste. Using this insight – and harnessing the brand’s purpose - the team developed ‘Tomorrow’s Water’. Its tactics included:

• Integrating the campaign into Turkey’s top TV dramas
• Producing two docudramas with National Geographic, which were shared in schools, and a feature film with Disney
• And even utilising some seemingly unlikely marketing tools – including water fountains, water bills and minarets (a tall tower attached to a mosque, designed to share the daily call to prayer)

To show the world water’s true value, the team launched an exciting and creative new tool to measure our available water supplies: The Finish Water Index. The Index was developed in collaboration with Turkish Industrial and Development Bank, launched on the stock market and implemented across all financial tools.

The team even brought a dry lake back to life!

The results? Well, they speak for themselves.

• The Finish Water Index alone now reaches 25 million people every month and when it first launched, conversation around water increased by over 120%
• The campaign became the number one trending topic on Twitter in Turkey and worldwide
• Finish’s Market share increased by 30 points

And the consumer behaviour change has been significant:

• Six million households have stopped pre-rinsing
• 24 million tons of water have been saved

Over in Saudi Arabia, the Finish team harnessed the country’s rich history to bring its brand purpose to life. The Water Promise asked consumers to stop taking water for granted by using powerful depictions of historical figures depending on water in order to survive.

The campaign video shared that:

• 100 litres of water is wasted by handwashing dishes
• Dishwashers use 90% less water compared to handwashing

And asked viewers: “will you keep our legacy alive and preserve our greatest gift for the generations to come?” Compelling, right? How could our consumers say no?

The results were far-reaching:

• Penetration grew by 16.7%
• The campaign reached 41 million people (representing 76% of the entire GCC population)
• And 25,600 households purchased a dishwasher and Finish witnessed sales growth of 7% - representing record sales results

Together, these households are now saving 9.2 million liters of water every day.

During the height of the pandemic, Dettol’s purpose really came to the fore. During a time of fear, panic and confusion, the team were careful not to simply advertise but to act and empower in order to educate through the ‘Fight to Protect the little things we love, so that we can keep enjoying them’ campaign.

The campaign took a number of steps to establish Dettol as a trusted brand during a time of crisis:

• From survival to strength – the team launched an emotionally compelling film to give confidence to ‘Protector Moms’
• From fear to knowledge – educational and confidence building advice was shared in shopping environments both online and offline in the form of short films, social media content and working with influencers to get its healthy habits message across
• From a brand to a partner – hotels and airlines began distributing Dettol’s products and hygiene tips
• From individuals to the community – Dettol supported underprivileged communities and displaced refugee families across the UAE with free products

Take a look at just some of the results:

• Brand trust increased by 19%
• Dettol reached the number one spot in its category in YouGov ‘best brand’ rankings across three countries
• In the household segment, sales increased by 35% and market share went up by over 50%

How do you get a region that can’t talk openly about sex, talking about sex? By focusing on a universal truth: sex is a great way to celebrate the big and small events that happen in our lives. No matter where we are in the world!

Using Durex Arabia’s social media channels, the team ran an eight-month campaign that capitalised on every national holiday, major TV series or film release, sporting event or video game launch, transforming Durex’s packaging in-line with the theme.

The results were truly astounding. Sales increased by over 170%, which represents the greatest increase of any social media campaign from the brand. The campaign may not have mentioned sex or broken any taboos, but it did get everyone in the region thinking about it. Every day.