Midea Redefines Brand Engagement in Saudi Arabia with a 360° Midea Moments Campaign
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Midea's groundbreaking "Pronunciation Challenge" campaign has been celebrated at the MMA SMARTIES KSA Awards, recognizing it as one of the region's most innovative and effective brand-building initiatives.
Tackling a unique local challenge — the widespread mispronunciation of its name — Midea turned a potential brand barrier into an opportunity for connection, education, and entertainment through a fully integrated 360° consumer engagement campaign.
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A Three-Phase, Full-Funnel Brand Journey
The campaign was designed as a multi-phase, multi-audience journey, seamlessly connecting digital virality with real-world experiences.
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Phase 1: The KSA Truck Roadshow — Driving B2B & B2C Engagement
The campaign began with the Midea KSA Truck Roadshow, strategically divided into B2B and B2C dimensions, each reinforcing the other to strengthen brand awareness and trust among distributors, partners, and consumers.
B2B: Featured customer headquarters truck unveilings, regional dealer exhibitions, and product training for 700+ channel sales personnel across three regions, along with visits to 37 key stores across KSA.
B2C: Focused on creating buzz through TikTok activation, influencer collaborations, and on-ground consumer interaction, introducing Midea to new audiences with a modern, interactive approach.
This phase laid the foundation for Midea's brand-building ecosystem, positioning the brand as both technologically advanced and culturally connected in Saudi Arabia.
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Phase 2: Tongue-Twister Challenge — Turning Mispronunciation into a Movement
Launched on World Tongue Twister Day (20–29 September 2024), this phase transformed pronunciation education into a fun, viral cultural trend. Leveraging Saudi National Day and TikTok's 96% social media penetration, Midea created a tongue-twister challenge that quickly gained nationwide traction.
Over 650 pieces of user-generated content were created in just nine days, driving 14 million video plays, 15 million brand impressions, and 820,000 online interactions. Influencers and football fans joined the conversation, while Midea extended the activation to Kooora and Goal platforms during the Al Hilal vs Al Ittihad match in Jeddah — exceeding planned views by 3.6X and doubling video completion benchmarks.
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Phase 3: On-Ground Activation — Bringing the Brand to Life at Riyadh Boulevard
From 24th October to 2nd November 2024, Midea brought the digital excitement offline with a massive on-ground activation at Riyadh Boulevard, one of Riyadh's busiest commercial and entertainment hubs.
The branded Midea truck acted as a rolling showroom, featuring interactive games, touch-screen experiences, table football, and FIFA stations that created deep consumer engagement.
Over 5,000 visitors attended across six days.
The activation generated 45 million brand impressions, 30 million video plays, and 250,000 clicks.
The excitement was amplified by top-tier Saudi influencers, resulting in 400,000+ views and 50,000 engagements, and further boosted through Lovin' Riyadh's 4-hour Instagram live takeover, which reached 358,000 consumers and achieved 515,000 video plays.
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Phase 4: Digital Extension — Turning Games into Ongoing Engagement
To sustain the momentum, Midea launched an online "Touch & Win" game (20th October – 30th November), adapting its on-ground experience for digital audiences. The microsite attracted 135,000+ clicks, 11,000+ unique gameplays, and an impressive 97% completion ratio, supported by targeted paid media on Meta, Kooora, Goal, and programmatic platforms — driving 10M+ impressions and over 2M reach.
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Exceptional Results
The "Midea Pronunciation Challenge" delivered exceptional results across all key metrics:
18M+ video views | 24.6M+ impressions | 1.1M engagements
45M+ brand impressions from on-ground activations
55% increase in brand aided awareness
84% campaign recall
2.7M+ people correctly pronouncing "Midea"
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A New Benchmark for Localized Brand Storytelling
By integrating TikTok virality, influencer credibility, football culture, and immersive physical activations, Midea redefined what localized marketing could achieve in Saudi Arabia. The campaign successfully transformed a simple mispronunciation into a nationwide moment of pride, proving that creativity, culture, and connection remain at the heart of brand success.
In short: Midea didn't just teach Saudi Arabia how to pronounce its name — it gave people a reason to remember it.