Ahead of Saudi National Day, Twitter presents case studies for brands to better connect with audiences DUBAI: The upcoming #SaudiNationalDay (#اليوم_الوطني_السعودي_91) celebrates the Kingdom’s culture, heritage and achievements, but also gives brands a chance to connect with audiences. In the lead up to Saudi National Day, Twitter held a virtual event unveiling audience insights from a recent survey for brands to better connect with audiences. It showed that 69 percent of respondents believe it’s important for local brands to communicate around Saudi National Day, and 56 percent believe the same for multinational brands. Moreover, 46 percent of people found National Day celebrations to be “more special” on Twitter. ad Research also found that conversation around the day kicked off at the beginning of September on Twitter, with 50 percent of it happening between Sept. 1 and Sept. 21. As users start celebrating early, they believe brands should do the same. 76 percent believe brands should kick off celebrations in the lead up to the day, as opposed to solely communicating on the day, with 58 percent preferring several tweets around the celebration, as opposed to a single tweet of acknowledgement. With regards to content, Twitter advised using multiple formats – text, image, video – to communicate citing a Nielsen Brand Effect study, which showed that using more than 3 ad formats increases the probability of campaign success. Similarly, a study by Tubular Labs revealed that video content is driving the conversation for Saudi National Day, with 134 million video views generated on related content. FASTFACTS * 46 percent of Saudis on Twitter believe National Day celebrations are more special on the platform. Ads by optAd360 * 69 percent believe it is important for local brands to communicate around Saudi National Day. * 56 percent believe it is important for multinational brands to communicate around Saudi National Day. * 76 percent believe brands should kick off celebrations in the lead up to the day. * 58 percent prefer several tweets from brands around the celebration, as opposed to a single tweet of acknowledgement. Twitter also presented case studies of successful campaigns from last year, including those by Saudi Aramco, Mobily and Visit Saudi. Saudi Aramco’s 2020 campaign celebrated the best of Saudi Arabia’s past and present. Using the hashtag انسى_توقفنا# (#Unstoppable), the campaign invited Saudis to tweet their gratitude to workers who had helped Saudi Arabia stay strong over the years. This was followed by a video that chronicled 90 years since the unification of the Kingdom and celebrated the Saudi community. Ads by optAd360 On Saudi National Day itself, the campaign engaged its audience by asking users to join their yearly tradition of raising the national flag and participate by hitting “like” to help raise the flag. This live activation was broadcast on Periscope and was amplified via a Promoted Trend Spotlight. Lastly, the brand asked people to express what makes them proud to be a Saudi, using a dedicated hashtag, لأني_سعودي# (#IAmASaudi). These tweets were then featured in a video that concluded the campaign. Aramco’s campaign achieved mass reach with a total of 73 million impressions, 19.9 million video views and 1.4 million engagements. Mobily wanted to engage its audiences during this day of national pride with something memorable, and so it teamed up with Saudi musicians to launch an exclusive new track. As part of a wider campaign with the انطلق_يالأخضر# hashtag (roughly translated as #GreenIsGo), the song’s lyrics were inspired by the determination of Saudis across the country. The video features hints of green as an ode to the national colours. A short teaser video was tweeted on Sept. 14 ahead of Saudi National Day, encouraging audiences to sign up for a reminder so that they would hear the full song as soon as it dropped. As part of the reveal phase, those who opted in for a reminder were given exclusive access to the song video hours ahead of everyone else. Ads by optAd360 The final video reveal also aimed to drive further engagement with the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win smart devices. This exclusive video racked up 1.9 million views and had an engagement rate of 10 percent. Visit Saudi launched a Twitter campaign to showcase the Kingdom’s most scenic destinations. The initial tweet featured a video created with user-generated content from Visit Saudi’s previous “Tanafas” (“breathe” in Arabic) summer campaign. This was paired with the hashtag حظنا_بالسعودية# (#LuckySaudis), which triggered its own custom-branded emoji. To ensure a connection with their target audience, Visit Saudi partnered with various influencers who Tweeted the video in multiple languages. Twitter’s conversation settings were used to ensure that only followers of @VisitSaudiAR could reply. This enabled the tourist authority to get the best possible user-generated content. Additionally, the call-to-action Tweet buttons were used to make it easier for people to spread the #LuckySaudis message. The campaign created a buzz, reaching a total of 63 million impressions and 900,000 engagements. With more than half of Saudi audiences believing in brand communications surrounding Saudi National Day, there is a massive opportunity for brands – local and multinational – to connect with their audiences and create brand positivity.