Saba Omaish, OSN’s Head of Marketing, explains how the MENA broadcaster challenges us on TikTok to keep our eyes peeled for the world’s best entertainment.

What do you do when you have a massive list of amazing TV shows and movies to watch and only 24 hours in a day to watch them in?

Keep your eyes open longer, obviously.

That was the test that OSN put to TikTokers in KSA last month through the افتح_عينك# (#OpenYourEyes) Hashtag Challenge – that included a Branded Effect, TikTok’s interactive filter. How long could people keep their eyes open? Just long enough for a quick episode of Brooklyn 99, or for a gripping 50-minute episode of Game of Thrones?

“It was such a great synergy” said Saba Omaish, OSN’s Head of Marketing. “TikTok is the hottest thing in short-form, mobile entertainment and OSN has the region’s best and most diverse catalog of longer-form, big screen content. So, when people are ready to transition from their phones to their TVs, OSN is top of mind.”

Over 226,000 people took the افتح_عينك# challenge in total, putting their own spin on keeping their eyes open for as long as possible – some with inventiveness, some with style, and many with a zany sense of humor. All those videos, including ones by some of TikTok’s biggest regional creators, drove over 490 million video views in just six days.

“We generated two million page views on our website” continued Omaish. “There were so many visitors to our site that our IT team called to see what we were up to”.

While the paid campaign ran for just six days, the impact of the Hashtag Challenge and Branded Effect continued, growing organically with video views on افتح_عينك# now exceeding a billion. “It’s not instinctive, but it worked – using one entertainment medium to promote and build an association with another. And when the promotion medium boasts a user base that is as happy and as engaged as TikTok’s, the brand association drives real results,” concluded Omaish.