Virgin Mobile invites Saudi Arabian youth to guide animated story

A man is driving along a Saudi Arabian road. Suddenly a police car appears in front of him. He has a red button on his dashboard. What happens next?

This is the question Virgin Mobile is asking on its social media channels as it launches an animated film first for Saudi Arabia. Over the next month, viewers will guide the development of the story step-by-step, by putting forward their suggestions to Virgin Mobile’s team on social media for how the story should develop.

The best suggestions each time will be turned into the next animated episode. New episodes will be posted every day or so, moving the story along steadily through the month.

“We have absolutely no idea right now what is going to happen in this story,” said Karim Benkirane, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Mobile. “We can’t wait to see what young Saudi Arabians come up with over the next month. We have hundreds of thousands of people following us on social media, and they all have a chance to influence the story’s course. We know that people are very creative.”

Virgin Mobile has over 342,000 likes on Facebook and 133,000 followers on Twitter from which to crowdsource ideas as the story progresses.

Karim added: “Most of my colleagues are young Saudi Arabians, and as a company we are excited by and want to celebrate Saudi Arabian youth culture.”

Last year Virgin Mobile recruited a team of youth culture pioneers, the Creative Collective, chosen by votes on social media. 

The Creative Collective members have been working closely with Virgin Mobile in their role as trend spotters and champions in their respective fields, inspiring young people in their creative interests. They include an Urbanist, a Foodie, a Gadgeteer, a photographer and a filmmaker.