2012 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Healthymagination is GE’s shared commitment across the globe about creating better health for more people. In Saudi Arabia, GE needed to find a way to move the needle on family health for the nation. On ground, Saudis face high obesity rates, an underdeveloped culture of health & fitness, and lifestyle limitations. Online, they had no real healthcare education resources and few informed conversations. At its very heart, this was a social problem. One that needed a social answer that went beyond likes, shares and followers. Our big idea was to create and grow a community, to educate about healthy lifestyles targeting women (as gatekeepers of family health) and families, and ultimately to enable change in behaviors on the ground.

The Brief

Our idea was driven by consumer insight through social listening, where we found that there was a huge need for women to understand how to be healthy and how to keep their families healthy, but hindered by the lack of content and forums that would address local needs. From healthcare statistics to lifestyle behaviors in fitness, food and nutrition, this lack of original, localized content people could use and discuss was creating a massive toll on the Kingdom’s health. We needed to create change from the ground up.

Results

Just over a year ago, there was next-to-nothing when it came to health information available online for Saudis in their own language, and from their cultural perspective. Today over 20,000 women in Saudi ask, learn, discuss and engage in conversations around improving family health across our social platforms. Partnerships with local government and respected global organizations have grown dramatically. And doors have opened for more projects to come, continuing our resolution for better health for more people in 2012.

Execution

We brought the idea to life with an Arabic web portal www.healthymagination.me dedicated to original local healthcare content. Hundreds of articles around fitness and nutrition were created for a KSA specific audience. Thousands of healthy Arabic recipes were generated. This type of content is a first in the region online. A calendar was introduced, covering key healthcare topics every month, from helping families stay healthy during Eid, to understanding cancer. Our activities included launching a data visualization tool that helped people visualize their health and family health clearly, and a mobile app that provided tips on how to make small changes to lifestyles for healthier living. Content was then shared on Facebook, inspiring an active conversation with women around better health. Our Facebook community grew to 18,587 fans with record-high engagement rates. Relationships with media and influencers were also built through Twitter, where we engaged thousands of followers.

The Situation

Social listening in the online space revealed that women and families in KSA were seeking healthcare information and dialogue, but there was little available. Most information was in English; there was no resources or conversations for people living in KSA, attuned to their realities. What would women do with content related to working out at gyms when gyms are not an option for women living in KSA? Or, how would they be able to get their families converted to healthy eating, if all healthy eating references are for meals not native to their culture?

The Strategy

We saw social engagement as the key driver to change mindsets and drive healthy behaviors for families. Healthymagination is the Kingdom’s first and only community-based Arabic Health platform. This social ecosystem is designed to foster education, inspire conversations and generate media buzz around key healthcare issues. Healthymagination.me brings together hundreds of locally relevant articles on family health, nutrition and fitness. It shows women and families how making lifestyle changes are possible, within a Saudi context. It forges a space for an active, open dialogue. The portal includes key healthcare topics every month – keeping the conversation current and attracting influencers. The site provides tools for insights into family health, and delivers fun apps to drive lifestyle change. It serves up original content that can help mothers engage family members around health, and it introduces campaigns that tackle culturally taboo healthcare subjects such as breast cancer.