The first half of the year witnessed unprecedented changes across the world due to the COVID pandemic that left nothing untouched by its impact. Not surprisingly, the global reach of the virus also affected regional markets such as the UAE, leading to marked changes in consumer behaviour and engagement patterns.
Social distancing and forced isolation measures have left brands to seek new ways of reaching their consumer audience without coming across as opportunistic. Striking a balance between ‘real’ outreach while communicating the brand’s message sympathetically without seeming exploitational during these sensitive times has also been a communication challenge for some.
However a few organizations have risen to the challenge successfully with the aid of their agency’s insights on consumer content consumption, innovative ideation and authentic storytelling.
Suneesh Menon, Director of Projects at BPG MAX and client lead on the Rivoli Group shared an example of this – “Rivoli EyeZone has always been a brand that specializes in eyecare solutions besides its luxury fashion eyewear offerings, and is probably one of the few local home-grown brands who give free mobile eyecare tests as part of its CSR initiative. Taking the idea forward to the next level, we recommended a special campaign honouring healthcare professionals in the UAE calling it, ‘Vision Care for Heroes’.”
“The basic premise rested on the gifting of free eyeglass lenses by Rivoli EyeZone to any healthcare professional who walked through the doors of the brand’s outlets in UAE, while producing the necessary documentation as proof of their profession. With no financial investments into media spends, the entire campaign was supported by PR stories across traditional and digital platforms pitched by the BPG MAX PR team and social media video content, all of which went viral due to its sheer merit of value and validity”, added Menon.
“The campaign generated more than USD 55,000 of free PR mileage, over 133,000 cc of free print coverage, free RJ mentions on all the leading radio channels in UAE and over 300,000 views on social media. With 5000+ enquiries and more than 4,000 eyeglass lenses given away to healthcare professionals proved the success of the campaign’s communication reach”, added Santripti Vellody, PR Director, BPG MAX.
BPG MAX PR is part of the integrated services offered along with creative and social media under the BPG MAX umbrella, keeping in step with the ‘one-stop one-shop’ solution for brands that need marketing objectives to be met through integrated communication strategies.
Another approach using consumer engagement insights was implemented by the BPG MAX media team to create a winning media strategy for Al Ain Water – Agthia Group during Ramadan. With the entire country under lock-down for the first time in history during the holy month, the challenge was to identify innovative mediums to communicate ‘A Wish in Every Bottle’ initiative by Al Ain Water in collaboration with ‘Make-A-Wish’.
“During lock-down our analysis showed that consumers were spending more time watching movies online as well as on gaming platforms, so we explored uncharted territories for _Al Ain Water with the inclusion of platforms like Shahid.com and other gaming networks, which proved to be extremely effective. These are times when most have learnt that agility and having our ear to the ground are important qualities to survive brand communication challenges during Covid”, added Amit Raj, General Manager at BPG MAX.
