The Brief

SBA is launching a new revolutionary Saudi channel targeting the new generation of Saudi viewers. The channel called SBC is to be the center of televised entertainment broadcasting an attractive Saudi and Arabic content.

The Challenge

Saudi TV has been around for decades but it’s been incredibly static, people stopped watching Saudi channels and would only tune-in to watch occasional royal announcement, which didn’t exceed two times a year. Saudis used to mock Saudi channels as they were forced to watch nothing else, which become this generation’s inside joke about STV (Ghasb).

Objective:

The main objective for this channel launch was to connect people and entertain them as part of the economic vision, and as for the campaign objectives it was to create a memorable impact and buzz and

become one of the top 5 regional channels and to be attractive for advertisers to promote on.

As a local agency, we had the advantage of understanding the business environment and audience and being part of it. We knew how symbolic this new channel would be as part of the entertainment revolution happening in the region, we needed this campaign to be impactful. For years Saudi TV was referred to as Ghasb 1&2 which literally translates to “Forced”. We knew that by using such a strong word it would not only spark interest in people who didn’t know the backstory, which is the younger target audience but also trigger nostalgia in the older audience which in result would start a conversation between both generations. The word Ghasb is controversial, as it wasn’t only a negative word in itself but it also represented a time where people had no choice, taking that negativity and turning it positive from being forced to watch it to Forced to love it.

70% of Saudis are under 30, and SBC wanted to revolutionize the Saudi TV experience into this generation’s the channel of choice, therefore our focus target audience was between the ages of 18-35, however, it wasn’t only a new young audience that we wanted to attract, it was also important to regain the older generations who experienced the rise and fall of Saudi TV. We started by asking ourselves a question. Could we rely on a creative idea to spin this negative into a positive? Years after the nickname had been forgotten, Ghasb became the starting point for our launch campaign concept. To build intrigue and get people talking with ambiguity, we started with a teaser campaign. The word "Ghasb" became front and center of a teaser campaign that ran across the entire GCC region, creating a spark of interest in both sets of the TA.