2018 was a transformational year for women in Saudi– in a country where women had faced restrictions from voting, the ability to work in certain sectors to even entering football stadiums-this all changed. The decree allowing women to drive also came into effect in June.Women had had little representation beyond the family and the kitchen, and with these new changes taking place brands now had an opportunity to help Saudi women navigate them.

However much of the representation or endorsement to follow particularly on driving was a case of everyone jumping on a media bandwagon- in short largely cosmetic.

STC wanted to lead the change in mindset, in a country where the decision to allow women to drive had divided the nation. So with this campaign we turned to the past and Saudi’s history-there is a Saudi Arabia today because of a woman, Princess Noura, The woman who drove her brother to lay the foundations of the kingdom. In doing so,not only did we demonstrate that women have always had a role but that It’s not by celebrating women being allowed to drive that you promote female empowerment but it’s by acknowledging their historic right to drive the country forward.

Remind those that oppose change, that this Change is not actually change

We took the nation back to 1902, and reminded them of their roots with an online film and told the story of Noura’s brother (akhou Noura)- the story of King abdulaziz, a young man who went on a quest to reclaim his grandfather’s kingdom and succeeded. All because of Noura. Consequently he called

While many brands had started to communicate with empowering messages of “its your time”, we decided to dig deeper to really understand the fabric of Saudi Arabia, and so we went back in time – we looked at Saudi’s history and in our journey we went back as far as 1902.

We discovered the story of a young man who went on a quest to reclaim his grandfather’s kingdom and succeeded. All because of the help of his sister Noura. This young man was King Abdulaziz Bin Abulrahman the founder of Saudi arabia and he named himself after his sister, the brother of noura (akhounoura) to honor her driving force in the Kingdom’s history.

We had to remind the nation of its history, that women playing such a key role in society what not new but rather part of Saudi Arabia’s DNA.

The nation responded:Famous TV hosts, university students, and even soldiers joined the movement through customized pins and car stickers. Influencers featured the names of their sisters, daughters or wives as their profile pics. Government officials did the same with their badges, as did The Royal Family.

The film

-5 million views

- 40 million impressions

- Our hashtag was the second trending hashtag on twitter on the day of driving

STC was the Saudi woman’s first choice

- Main brand increased from 54% to 61%

- Top of Mind awareness from 70% to 72%

We generated an earned media value of 1 million USD

More importanty STC’s commitment to the change of woman driving helped galvanise a nation behind every woman, altering the nation’s mindset. Demonstrating that change didn’t make history but that history made the change desired in Saudi Arabia.