Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, the authorized distributor of Toyota vehicles in Saudi Arabia, recognizing the tremendous growth potential in the aftersales market, identified YouTube as the most effective channel for growing its customer base.
With the goal of driving brand awareness, delivering a message of value for money and shifting Toyota drivers’ preference from independents or service chains, Abdul Latif Jameel Motors teamed with its agencies to produce the six-month YouTube series, 'Khebayyes & AbuHurayyes', and created a marketing sensation on the internet. The success of the series and, consequently, the campaign, was a textbook case of creativity in both content and marketing.
“The numbers were so impressive,” said Munir Khoja, Director of Marketing Communications at Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, “that our second season is already being planned.”
Khebayyes & AbuHurayyes is an animated web series that revolves around two characters.
The first is the wise and loveable AbuHurayyes, characterized by his simple approach to life but great knowledge. His neighbor, Khebayyes, is an intelligent person, but needs someone to guide him toward making the right decisions. Although a promotional vehicle for Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, the series tackles the truly serious problem of inferior counterfeit replacement parts flooding the local market.
Over the course of just six months, Toyota Service Saudi, the official aftersales YouTube channel of Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, garnered some 194,000 new subscribers and a very impressive 11.8 million unique users. As 57% of those users completed watching the episodes they clicked on, the series racked up 187 years of watch time.
The 20 episodes and a teaser that preceded the season were released every Thursday, the beginning of the weekend in Saudi Arabia. The releases were supported by a TrueView ad campaign and three masthead ads. On top of that, negative remarketing was employed so that advertising for a specific episode was not pushed to those who had already viewed them while positive remarketing pushed advertising on those who had not watched the episode.
The success of the series constitutes a home-run for Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, achieving its success through engaging local content, a strong media distribution strategy and brilliant execution. Engaged viewers readily offered their suggestions for the future, asking that future episodes be lengthened from three to five minutes and provide more interactive possibilities for viewers. Abdul Latif Jameel Motors and its partners in the series are also planning on creating episodes that are related to actual social events so as to engage viewers even more.
Now, stay tuned for Season Two.
