2013 Winners & Shortlists

AFRAID OF 'ALEF'?

Short List
BrandMY NURSERY
Product/ServiceEDUCATION
EntrantWUNDERMAN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryTYPOGRAPHY
Entrant Company WUNDERMAN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Advertising Agency WUNDERMAN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Brief Explanation

Our insight? Children fear the unknown. Things they have never seen before might come across as intimidating and even scary – and for most Arab kids in Dubai, this is the case with the unfamiliar Arabic alphabet. The challenge was to convince parents to choose this nursery over others as it has a unique offering.

The Brief

48.1% of UAE expats are of Arab origin, and most speak to their kids in English, as do their nannies of other nationalities. Arab kids watch English TV and 80%+ parents send their child to an English curriculum school. So many kids don’t learn to read and write their own language. My Nursery is one of the few bilingual nurseries to introduce children to classical Arabic alongside English at an early age. Our brief was to wake Arab parents up to this issue which they knew but felt helpless about – and tell them that My Nursery was there to help.

How the final design was conceived

We took the letters of the Arabic alphabet and created scary versions of all 28 of them - each one developed to incorporate elements from scary creatures such as menacing eyes, webbed fingers, scaly skin, sharp nails, pointy claws, etc. These were converted into a set of 28 flashcards with a twist – on one side was a scary letter and on the other, the original Arabic letter and a picture of the most common object it stood for. By turning the card, children could be shown that there was nothing to be afraid about, and understood its real meaning.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

350 sets of flash cards were delivered as door drops in the locality of Jumeirah, the surrounding area around the nursery. After this exercise, My Nursery is functioning at full capacity, with 62 children on their waiting list for the next school year. The flash cards are also being used effectively by teachers at the nursery as their own branded teaching aid, and through this unique design, helping them take out any fear of Arabic language, one letter at a time. This set of unique alphabets created is now being turned into a ‘Shake the fear out’ mobile app as well.

Credits

Name Company Role
Kerry Platts Wunderman Executive Creative Director
Richa Khan Wunderman Associate Creative Director
Rasha El Saadi Wunderman Senior Art Director
Shweta Suvarna Tariq Wunderman Senior Copywriter
Narciso Arellano Wunderman Designer/Illustrator
Yaarub Al Bahlol Wunderman Senior Arabic Copywriter
Celine Barakat Wunderman Senior Arabic Copywriter
Vivek Chonkar Wunderman Production Manager
Babu Nair Wunderman Senior Artworker
Evita Haddad Wunderman Account Director