Saudi Arabia leads one of the most patriarchal societies in the world and has among the worst levels of female workforce participation. This is mainly due to the belief that men should work and be the breadwinners; while women should stay at home and care for the children.

This has been the case for generations: women were restricted to work for many cultural reasons. Other bans include traveling or marrying by choice, and women could also be denied access to health, judicial and other public services without first obtaining permission from a male guardian.

In 2018, and under vision 2030 of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the government started to act in an attempt to support women’s rights, by allowing them to drive and watch live sports at the three national stadiums.

However, true empowerment starts with economic independence; a concept that was unfortunately still not appreciated by society. While women account for 51.8% of Saudi university graduates, they are still longing to apply this knowledge where it matters; and contribute to society and to the economy.

Maggi believed, it was time to make a difference.

Everyone talked about women driving, but no one talked about women wanting to join the workforce. After all, true empowerment begins with economic independence.

Women in Saudi were searching for: “How can I start working?”, “How can I open a business?”. They were longing to work but were struggling and were still not getting the right support from the community and from men. It was still not socially acceptable for them to work.

As MAGGI, we wanted to change that. But how does a food brand talk business?

“Food Opens Doors” was our creative idea.

In fact, interest in ‘food businesses’ was on the rise, and possibilities were endless: food trucks, Insta-food businesses, restaurants etc.. We decided to go on the ground and search for real, ambitious women who were struggling, support them and help them succeed, to set the right positive example for other women and the whole community.

How does a food brand talk business? To endorse a topic as big as women joining the workforce, we needed to use 'real' protagonists; and make the content more about 'the people' and less about 'the brand'.

The solution: Partner with real influencers to tell the story and amplify the message in the most authentic and credible manner.

Through pinpointed data research, we detected the top issues that women were facing: lack of know-how, failed attempts, lack of acceptance from the community, etc... and chose experts in the food business industry to support.

From across the Kingdom, we identified different women - some conservative, some ultra-modern who were struggling to open their business and paired them with those influencers to share their knowledge and advice on how to succeed.

The stories were amplified on digital and social media, and targeted women based on what they were searching for.

MAGGI inspired millions of women who had the ambition but lacked the courage to start.

• 218M impressions and 28.7M video views (across all platforms)

• 79% reach on FB/IG

• Completion rate on FB/IG @30% (3x industry norm) and 28% on YT (2x industry norm)

• Active engagement rate on FB/IG of 15% (industry norm 4%)

• We drove 533K sessions on site with a massive time spent of 2min 10sec

• Massive engagement with influencers who interacted with thousands of women

Real impact on-ground:

• New businesses opened even in the most conservative parts of Saudi, defying cultural norms and inspiring many others.

• Small businesses expanded

• As pointed out by Eman, one of the top YouTube creators in Saudi Arabia: “When a woman goes on camera and breaks the rules, she pushes other women to do the same… and she is basically telling them it’s ok!”