2012 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Worood, Dubai's leading floral decoration company made it clear to us that they wanted to create their own initiative to truly reach out to those in need during the 'Pink October' month of breast cancer awareness. Managing their Facebook and Twitter accounts, our solution was to create 'The Pink Rose' campaign. The campaign encouraged online users to visit a microsite and Facebook application and leave a message of hope for someone affected by breast cancer. Worood would collect these messages throughout the month, attach them to their own pink roses and send them to cancer survivors and patients. The Pink Rose campaign made it on the front pages of local magazines, had representatives collect and give out roses at high profile events, and create long lasting relationships with influential industry bloggers and organizations worldwide. Worood initiated their online presence by solidifying their status as a community-oriented company for virtually zero media spend,and still collect messages and deliver roses as part of the campaign to this day, ensuring that by sending anonymous messages attached to flowers, they are still able to brighten the lives of those affected by breast cancer one rose at a time.

The Brief

Worood aimed to establish a campaign that would target women and others whose lives had been affected by breast cancer, educate as well as inspire and make full use of all available media channels. The brief required the campaign to have its own identity, be instantly recognizable and leave a lasting legacy for future years. In researching this campaign, we spoke to numerous charitable organizations, bloggers and breast cancer awareness societies to ensure their support for the campaign. In order to launch the campaign and ensure its spread, we needed to guarantee that influential parties were on board.

Results

Worood's Facebook page went from an inactive platform to a vital communication tool for the company, with the number of 'likes' on the page reaching 333 within the first week - an 800% increase. Attention drawn from the campaign has led to many exciting partnerships for Worood, working with What's On Magazine and Dior among others. Community interest in the company remains high, organizations such as In Dubai We Trust and Dubai Hospital are currently strategizing with Worood to plan for next years campaign. The following data was collected between 1st October - 31st October 2011 Offline Total Events Attended: 5 Number of Roses Distributed: 2,000 Messages Collected : 150 Press Press Clippings Collected: 18 Total Blog Postings: 12 Social Media Facebook Post Views: 38,470 Facebook New Likes : 358 Facebook Application Views: 2,090 Twitter New Followers: 120

Execution

Initially, the Facebook application and microsite were launched on October 2nd 2011, with Worood's Twitter account adapting to The Pink Rose branding alongside. Flyers were placed in stores and roses were given out daily to female customers entering outlets. Messages received peaked in the initial two weeks of the campaign, with the first roses with messages attached being given out after this period. The campaign was also present at a number of local breast cancer awareness events organized by charities and organizations including Pink Caravan and Bras For A Cause, where Worood representatives handed out roses and mingled with attendees collecting messages using iPad consoles. Once the campaign had built momentum, articles were published in local publications, including Read Magazine and Khaleej Times. Local blogs such as Anna Likes and Pretty in the Desert helped spread the word digitally.

The Situation

Always willing to assist within the community, Worood's charitable initiatives in the past had been limited to working with individual hospitals sponsoring events and donating proceeds of sales to single charities. Worood wanted to reach out further in 2011, promoting their concern for a cause that was important to them - breast cancer awareness. Worood had virtually no market presence prior to the campaign. Our task was to establish them as an active and responsive member of the social media community interacting with other users and pages to spread awareness of their produce and charitable activities.

The Strategy

Our first step was to create an identity for the campaign to guarantee a high level of brand awareness throughout the period. Once the identity was created, we aimed to brand as much collateral to support the campaign. We designed a flyer to be handed out at events and at Worood outlets across Dubai, and made mobile phone wallpapers available for download. We aimed to utilize social media to drive awareness for this campaign, development for the Facebook application and microsite was worked on over 3 weeks prior to the campaign and tested. Our aim was to drive traffic to the microsite and Facebook application to collect messages through dialogue in blogs, the Worood Twitter account and offline magazine articles. Targets for dialogue included beauty and fashion bloggers, charitable organizations and societies for women across the UAE. Publications and blogs were targeted that would guarantee a wide, relevant exposure.