2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

BACKGROUND For most in the Middle East, taking social initiatives is driven by religious beliefs, guilt or a surge of emotion. The Coca-Cola Foundation wanted to create a CSR campaign to change the perception of doing good to others, to a basic act of humanity. IDEA We created Ripples of Happiness. 5 Countries. 10 Universities. 6 weeks. Our idea was to target the youth. As they were the most socially active and the most receptive to bring in this change of perception, to the next generation.

Creative Execution

At the end of six weeks, winning projects received additional aid from the Coca-Cola Company to be implemented on a larger scale to touch even more lives. This not only encouraged social consciousness among teenagers across Universities in the Middle East but also enhanced the reputation of Coca-Cola among an important target.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We recruited 200 students who identified problems in their community. People from the community itself, voted for which projects teams would tackle. Each University was empowered by customized iPad apps directly connected to a Microsite, Twitter and Facebook. We created a competition and leveraged social media to directly spread the Ripples beyond the teams, to the entire university, friends and the larger community to gather their votes, and win this competition. Over six weeks, the teams streamed live feeds, videos, photos and experiences to the Microsite, Twitter and Facebook gathering shares, interactions and most importantly, votes along the way.

Results

The initiative became contagious through hundreds of websites & blogs in the region directly affecting people across the region. Press and TV spread regional awareness. The campaign received support across media from major youth influencers like Ahmad Al Shugairi, Sheikha Hessa and Fahad Al Butairi. 200 students spread the initiative to 120,000 other students. The most valuable result of Ripples of Happiness is measured by the smiles it created and the shift in perception it brought among an entire generation. Who would spread the Ripples for generations to come.