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Nour Ihab Hanna
900112121
JRMC 460
Second Interview Transcription
Returning to the Old days
This is a 4:30 audio from the original interview with Dalia Salib, Marketing Director,
Beverages, in PepsiCo Egypt and North East Africa, from her office in PepsiCo
Egypt.
The interview talks about Pepsi 2014 campaign " Yalla Nekml Lametna" and the
origin of the campaign that started in 2013. It also tackles the advertising agency of
Pepsi in Egypt, Impact BBDO and how the campaign has succeeded in achieving its
planned goals.
Nour Ihab Hanna, a Journalism student in AUC, hosts the interview.
Now it's time for our interview with Dalia Saliab, Marketing Director,
Beverages, in PepsiCo Egypt and North East Africa, to talk about Pepsi 2014
campaign a how did the campaign first started and it's origin that started in
2013.0:15
Salib: The idea that we played around this year still lavishing a lot of the nice
memories and symbols of the past. They are not necessary a hundred percent
Ramadan icons, but you also have to have that they had certain memorable messages
or memorable icons to them; like Sherine, George Sidhom and Samir Ghanem. So,
these were really...they really have a mark in the Egyptian theatrical history. We have
Mama Nagwa and Bo2loz, you have the "4M", you have La'ibet el kora (football
players). So, theses were all in themse lves they were very memorable, very high
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recalled, very high awareness on lot of the people and recreating them would have
made it a very much relevant to the message.
2014 campaign was an extended version to Yalla Nekml Lametna campaign in
2013
So, this year was a continuation; was a part two but with a bit of addition and a bit of
twist that really made it fly with the song, because the song as well was a recreation
of an old Pepsi song which was "A'diha Pepsi A'diha" which was a song in the 90s,
recreated with the messaging of today. So, that as well really made it capture certain
emotions in people's heart and really leave a mark and touch people differently and
make it what it really was this year.1: 31
And, so Impact BBDO is the advertising agency for Pepsi? 1:35
Salib: Yes, Impact BBDO is the adverting agency and Hossam Mourro is the creative
director who developed the campaign.1: 40
And, what was the reaction of Pepsi when they `offered the idea of the campaign
of 2014? Did they first accept the idea or you had to study it and discuss? Were
they hesitated ta the beginning about the idea in 2013? 1:57
Salib: In '13, yes. Actually '13 was a bit of... It took time, we were a bit, I mean we
were scared we saw there was something big out there, we saw that the recreation of
the people like Fou'd El Mohandes, Nilly and Bougy and Tamtam last year; was
gonna be very strong, was gonna have very strong stopping power, was gonna make
people really talk about the campaign. Not very sure, how it will come out in terms of
production, but we took the risk and we decided that because Ramadan is a very a
special time of year and that is usually what we do; we actually do things that are not
necessarily hundred percent what the brand will do the rest of the year.
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So, in Ramadan we consider there is big license to do more entertainment, more
impressive, creative work that is a bit out of brand character sometimes, bit out
of target sometimes.
And that's because it is an occasion for all, it's an occasion for everyone; it is a very
highly emotional occasion. It is the highest watching of the year and that's where
people all are watching TV together and that's why you have turn a bit differently
from what you do the rest of the year and very emotional. So, that is why that
campaign we felt it could do that but at the same time, we were a bit skeptical,
worried about the execution, the timeline was very stretched and it required a lot of
work from production stand point. But, it didn't really take a lot of back and forth... I
mean maybe one or two sessions and we were there and we just went and started the
execution.3: 34
So, after agreeing on this idea, did it take you along time to convince the actors
in 2014 to join the campaign or was it that they accepted the idea of the
campaign and they join without too much effort? 3:47
Salib: most of the people, the celebrities were very positive an they were very
cooperative and they were really happy to feel that they were part of something that
was promoting nice message and meaning for people to connect and people to bond.
(05:49)
Yeah, and based on the statistics of Pepsi and all these facts, did the campaign
succeeded in achieving its target that is recalling our childhood memories?
(06:01)
Salib: Well, for us the core objective is something we call "brand laugh" and for a
campaign like this, that would be the primary objective. And, for us it did, it delivers
very much positively on the brand laugh, post Ramadan. We actually exceeded the
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target we have placed for the brand laugh figures, so from that element of emotionally
connected with the consumers; it definitely did succeed. (06:24)
Link to SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/nour-ihab-3/dalia-salib-pepsi-interview-on-yalla-nekmllametna-2014-campaign