Shahid’s all new brand success story
Massive uplift for Shahid’s brand only two months after its comprehensive product re-launch — unveiled at the Dubai Opera House event in January.
The Shahid platform was launched in 2009 as a way for MBC viewers to get to watch their favorite shows they may have missed on LiveTV. Essentially, it was positioned as a ‘catch-up’ tool for missed TV entertainment.
With the birth and growth of online streaming comes the need for evolution.
In late 2018, a new strategy was approved for the brand, along with countless tech, product and content improvements that would enhance Shahid’s popularity and firmly root the brand as the leading Arab streaming and entertainment service.
The new strategy principally challenged the brand to achieve all of the following:
- Shed its previous ‘catch up’ skin and re-emerge as a full-fledged streaming video platform with AVOD (Free) & SVOD (Paid) tiers, as well as Live television.
- Help the modern Arab family find & enjoy culturally & socially relevant premium video content; when, where and how they want it.
- Create cutting-edge original content that elevates the quality of Arabic storytelling and satisfies audiences’ thirst for authentic and disctinctive TV series told in contemporary, engaging and innovative ways.
- Grow Shahid’s paid tier by nurturing its well-established ‘great value for money’ proposition, while maintaining the popular appeal and market-leading audience size of its free tier.
- Rise to become an indispensable premium video streaming app for every Arab consumer’s screens; and the largest and most influential locally operated top-tier streaming service .
This ambition is expressed in Shahid’s brand aspiration statement: Create a service that Users, Content Owners and Advertisers passionately love.
Following months of preparation and improvements on all fronts of the business, the Shahid team unveiled its all-new service on January 15th, 2020 with a Silicon Valley style keynote event that made headlines around the region.
This was done in concert with a massive marketing campaign educating audiences about Shahid’s new brand with visuals and tactical messages describing the benefits of both its free and paid tiers, the latter having been rebranded as Shahid VIP.
To measure the effectivess of its relaunch and brand reset, Shahid conducted a large scale brand study that was implemented over two waves in its largest markets: KSA, UAE and Egypt. The first of these waves was conducted in December 2019 (just prior to re-launch), and the second in March 2020 (shortly after re-launch). The results were magnificent.
Shahid achieved very strong improvements in most key areas that validated its successful brand transformation.
On a brand level, and based on the early March data, Shahid led the region with a whopping 91% total awareness — sandwiched in between YouTube at 98% and Netflix at 77% and with a Top of Mind measurement higher than both these services at 31% — an absolute leader in that category
In the usage category, Shahid and Netflix continue to dominate but Shahid witnessed the biggest improvement over the last two months, particularly on the VIP tier brand, well ahead of other market players.
From a ‘brand perception’ point of view, Shahid already scored highly during previous studies in areas such as ‘Offers a good variety of Arabic content” and “Ability to watch on multiple devices”. It made considerable headway, however, in the most recent study in areas like, “Offers the best selection of TV series”, “Offers a good variety of Western content” and “Has content I can’t get anywhere else” — thanks to its new & exclusive originals and premieres before TV.
Since the January relaunch, Shahid’s story continues and its growth is accelerating, even during these challenging times of COVID 19 lockdowns, thanks to the recently launched Why Shahid VIP? Campaign offering a 30-day free trial, and followed by Ramadanak VIP campaign.
Stay tuned for more as we continue our exciting evolution!
