Mobily
Country
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Industry
Telecommunications
Project
Advertisement campaign
Mobily is an Etihad Etisalat consortium, which is the trade name of Saudi Arabia’s second GSM licence, that provides mobile telecom services nationwide, breaking Saudi Telecom’s monopoly in the wireless business. The company launched new services with the objective of maintaining leadership in data applications and services.
Mobily’s strategy involved assigning Alignian for translation and localisation of its advertising campaigns in English and Arabic. The plan was to expand and establish the brand throughout Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, and achieve set targets of sales and revenues.
The work required included content development, translation, layout design, typography, and photography for the advertising campaign, with a creative team of designers and copywriters who have a strong eye for detail and experience in the telecommunications industry.
Challenge
Localisation of international advertising campaigns can encompass challenges from using the same strategy of communication for all targeted audiences while adapting the campaign’s standard messages to the specificities of the local environment, to convey a single message in two different languages without losing neither the spirit nor message.
Linguists faced challenges when aligning the different elements of the advertising copy, including the text, slogan, catch line and caption. Each component had its intricacies when translating to another language after consideration of the cultural nuances; this includes the relation between the copy and the image, which is an essential element in impactful advertising. The adaptations of content and form needed effective translation and localisation with effective project management.
Solution
The advertising campaign was handled by communication specialists with multi-market expertise in advertising. This approach gave Alignian the advantage of foreseeing any issues and managing the cultural differences between target audiences. The production process involved photography management, retouching, design, desktop publishing, translation and localisation of print and digital assets for the campaign.
Mobily advertising campaign was adapted into Arabic for locals, and English for foreign audiences, while keeping the artwork familiar with the cultural and linguistic context of the local market. The message, brand, and product were fully localised while ensuring the content is suitable and appealing, this consisted of transcreation for the message and bilingual layout design with right to left language adaptation.
Results
With a dedicated team of linguists, designers and media planning experts, the project managers ran the process smoothly with fast turnaround. The campaign was adapted into Arabic and English achieving the strategic objectives and KPI metrics.
Mobily adapted campaign appealed to millennials in the press and outdoors, which drove Etihad Etisalat expansion targets and presented them as a leader and innovator in telecommunication services.