HEMPEL Paints Saudi Arabia successfully wrapped up its first ever online competition, "#HempelSaudiColours" by announcing Ali Shaya from Abha as the grand prize winner. Over 6,600 entries were submitted across Hempel's social media channels and the campaign reached 13,000,000 users in Saudi Arabia. The one-month competition encouraged photography lovers to inspire themselves from Hempel's colorful palette to take their creativity to new heights. Participants were asked to highlight those colors in flamboyant pictures which showcased the local culture, the landscapes and the people. One grand prize winner and five shortlisted runner ups were selected out of the 21 talented semifinalists. The winner, Ali Shaya from Abha, won a fully covered five-day trip to Barcelona (Spain) where he will be visiting Hempel's largest factory in Europe and also enjoying the next FC Barcelona game, courtesy of Hempel Paints Saudi Arabia. Mohamad Baitie, regional brand manager at Hempel, Middle East said: "At Hempel, we are passionate about colors. We know that colors affect one's mood and what's more, we care about connecting with our local community through colors. The idea of the competition materialized when we associated our care with our passion. And so, ‘#HempelSaudiColours' called upon everyone to gather, share and spread the inspiring colors of Saudi Arabia." The five runnersup won the HERO4 Silver edition of GOPRO for their efforts, and they are: Suliman Al-Harbi, Sami Hafiz, Aisha Al-Hammami, Yaman Fattouh and Mohsen Mansour. Baitie added: "We were surprisingly pleased with the enthusiastic participation rate and positive response. In fact, the competition did more than reveal the Kingdom's lifestyle, touristic sights, rich archeology and singular landscapes; it also unveiled hidden talents." The winning photos were selected based on criteria which took into account the authenticity of the picture (not to be taken from the Internet), its esthetic appeal (effort put into the idea behind the picture), referring to Hempel's palette of colors and being artistic (not ready-made, no pictures of paints or sculptures), symbolic and relevant (includes a portrait, landscape or a symbol that represents Saudi Arabia) and lastly, they had to be engaging (receives shares, retweets and comments). The pictures captured by the participants can be seen on Hempel Decorative Middle East Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HempelDecorativeME/
