2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

The cause became the talk of the town generating on air news coverage worth over $1.1 million USD in just a few weeks. The print media was not far behind with dedicated heath editorial bringing in over $300,000 worth of media space. Women were motivated by the Red Alert with over 208,000 visiting the site and more importantly 1,304 women getting a Red Alert health check-up.

Creative Execution

To generate hype and discussion around our campaign, we made heart-disease prime-time news by taking over UAE’s biggest TV stations – Dubai TV & Dubai One. In addition, we infiltrated popular talk shows and current affair programs with interviews from leading health experts. Subsequently, we rolled out the ‘Red Alert’ campaign over print, radio and digital. Our main message invited women all over the UAE to visit Deira City Centre and avail of the free heart health testing facility. Furthermore we partnered with fashion retailers to create a ‘Red Dress Gallery’. Participating fashion retailers exhibited a red dress in their window displays. Naturally women were attracted to check the outfits out. Upon closer inspection, they found that each dress was tagged ‘It’s not a red dress, it’s a red alert’. The red dresses allowed us to drive our message home in a striking and captivating manner.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women. Every year one in every four women die of heart disease in the UAE, and the harsh truth is that more women die of heart disease than breast cancer and HIV combined. Yet awareness regarding this grave health issue is very low. This is when Deira City Centre, a community mall, rose to the task. Our biggest challenge was not only to draw women’s attention to the disease but also educate them on how to take action against it. Developing a campaign that was themed ‘It’s not a Red Dress, It’s a Red Alert’, the creative featured women of different ethnicities in red dresses. Using the love for fashion as a hook, the campaign aimed at raising awareness levels amongst women.