2011 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

With our target market between the ages of 5 and 11, our key objective was to communicate in a manner that would engage them. Many a nursery rhyme is based on animals and insects. This became the inspiration for the posters. By adhering to a rhyming language, we retained a formula we knew kids found easy to commit to memory – the surprise being that the rhymes were craftily tinkered with. In this way, we overcame a major obstacle in the campaign. Talking to kids as well as developing a corporate leave behind schools would want to hold on to.

The Brief

David, our Client, asked us to develop a communication they could leave behind during their school’s corporate education programme. Children are great word of mouth carriers. Our client believed that if engaged properly, the children would not only learn something about pests, but also more importantly, carry the brand name home to their parents.

How the final design was conceived

The final design of the posters was largely influenced by what we thought would appeal and resonate with the age of our target market. The raggedy, sometimes gritty, black and white illustration style is intentional. Children's illustration is traditionally governed by fantasy, enchantment a pleasant aesthetic. We deliberately eschewed this approach. Pests are not pleasant. They are not warm and fuzzy. We wanted the illustration feel to be dark. Literally a bit of a gutter feel to it. Scary but still nice enough to look at. For kids.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Initially only earmarked for a few schools in the Dubai emirate, the school's programme will be launched nationally.