2012 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

As part of GE’s commitment to creating better health for more people, our challenge was to get women in Saudi to sign up and support the nation's first mobile breast screening drive. Many women in KSA are hesitant to take part in a cancer-related conversation. We had to find a way to overcome these barriers. To do this, we tapped into Saudi Arabia’s popular ‘avatar’ culture on social media. Saudi women use avatars to represent themselves, their opinions and emotions. Avatar for Action is a socially-led campaign that took this convention and turned it into a vehicle for a cause.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

GE’s Avatar for Action launched with a Facebook application that offered a simple, non-threatening way to empower women to create change in their community. Saudi women could design their avatars, choose positive cause messages, and share them across their social networks and blogs, in anonymity. For the first time women could invite their peers to sign up for a screening or discuss the issue without societal concerns.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

As more people shared their avatar, the community grew exponentially. In just over a month, the GE Facebook page soon became a daily hub of support, discussions, and information. The app received an average of 40 likes per day and 35 comments per post. Over 1200 questions around breast cancer were logged. And over 8000 women created avatars and messages of hope, supporting the screening drive.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The campaign merged the online and offline – in real time. The application generated a real-time parade of avatars as a symbol of hope. The virtual parade showed avatars from users creating messages in real-time. And the parade spread by being embedded to popular blogs and integrated into the screening launch event. At the launch, attendees could view the parade, and design their own Avatar on touch-screen displays. In seconds, they would see themselves dynamically appear on the screen as part of the parade.