It is only the 3rd week of the year but awards are already on top of mind. Press releases of some of the biggest wins of the marketing world are making it out, with Nissan being one of the first announced to win big early this year.
Dubai Lynx is MENA’s premier festival of creativity, a sister festival to one of the industry’s biggest creative events, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
The car manufacturer was announced to be the festival’s Advertiser of the Year for its work and creativity in campaigns such as CamelPower and #SheDrives. Nissan also won several awards last year for the two campaigns at Dubai Lynx 2018.
Philip Thomas, Chairman of Cannes Lions and Dubai Lynx, stated in a press release that
“The Advertiser of the Year Award is a recognition of creative bravery that demonstrates the value of marketing communications. Nissan have distinguished themselves through innovative campaigns and a skillful approach to communicating the benefits of its products. The awards they have won at Dubai Lynx over the past 5 years are testament to an organization that embodies creativity and we’re delighted to recognize and celebrate this excellence.”
Localized Campaigns for the Books
Nissan’s work has predominately focused on local cultures and cultural expectations, almost always geared towards solutions for very localized issues.
Celebrating some of their most notable and localized campaigns, we take a look back at CamelPower and #SheDrives.
CamelPower
In partnership with National Geographic Abu Dhabi, Nissan introduced a new measurement for cars based on its efficiency on Desert sand.
In the Gulf and African region, the desert maintains its powerful beauty and difficult terrain as a major part of most countries. This has made it difficult to traverse to distant areas at times, or to simply enjoy the local environment.
This was called “Camel Power,” a new unit of measurement to measure a car’s performance on local deserts.
According to TBWA/RAAD, “the scientific paper resulting from this collaboration and the formula itself have been presented to ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology) which has been highly receptive to the idea of this entirely new unit of measurement.”
Other than its partnership and documentary, the campaign also included “analogies” between camel and machine.
“A camel’s hump stores enough fuel to travel the longest journeys. So does our double gas tank.”
“A camel’s long strong legs absorb the shocks while keeping the body away from hot sand. So is the case of our ground clearance and desert driving suspension.”
CamelPower won a Silver Media Lion from Cannes Lions in 2017.
#SheDrives
Mid-2018 was a major year for women in Saudi Arabia as the first few women drove out in the hundreds, legally driving for the first time within the kingdom.
We mention Nissan in our coverage of the event > #SheDrives: MENA Brands celebrate new Saudi norm
To celebrate the momentous event, Nissan selected young women and asked about the reactions their loved ones had towards the new ruling. Many were unconfident and some were saddened by some of the reactions they received, stating they would rather wait and see the experiences of the first drivers before taking the wheel themselves.
Nissan took their worries and shifted them towards positivity with a special surprise.
Nissan used their Instagram as well to provide tips for female drivers before the set date, inviting drivers onto their stories to help new drivers with the ways of the road. The campaign also brought to life the hashtag #SheDrives, the hashtag that would become almost synonymous with the event and online media.
The automotive brand won a Gold P.R. Lion from Cannes Lions in 2018 as well.
Nissan and Dubai Lynx
In a press release by Dubai Lynx, Kalyana Sivagnanam, President of Nissan Middle East & Regional Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Africa, the Middle East and India stated,
“At Nissan we are dedicated to providing our customers with ‘innovation that excites’; this holds true across all touchpoints of the consumer journey, especially advertising.
We are therefore delighted and honoured to have been recognised by Dubai Lynx as Advertiser of the Year. We are extremely proud of our record at Dubai Lynx; since our first win in 2013, we have since gone on to be awarded 25 times, with 18 awards being received at last year’s event alone. These successes are testament to our dedication to identify new and exciting ways to communicate Nissan’s message to our customers, and it is our promise that we will continue to do so.”
Last year, 2018 won 3 awards at Dubai Lynx. CamelPower won the Grand Prix for both Promo & Activation and PR categories, while #SheDrives won the Grand Prix for the Interactive category.
Dubai Lynx‘s 2019 festival is set to start the region’s Festival of Creativity on the 10th of March.