How a Traditional Arab Gesture Transformed Mother's Day for Nivea

A culture insight, an emotional trigger and a whole lotta love – earlier this year Nivea tugged at the heartstrings of mums around the Middle East with their Mother’s Day campaign.

Their agency, HorizonFCB Dubai, had zeroed in on an ancient Arab cultural truth that persists to this day. It is common for children to kiss their mother’s hand as a sign of love and appreciation, and the agency wanted to link that behaviour with both Mother’s Day and with Nivea Crème.

That insight led to the creative idea ‘On her day, kiss her hand’. The campaign was all about leveraging and then shifting behaviour and was supported by film and social posts. But perhaps the most resonant aspect of the whole campaign was the use of an a cappella version of a traditional Arabic song that’s all about mothers. The whole campaign was about showing the hands that care for us that Nivea cares for them.