2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The current curriculum in Lebanese schools treats civic education as a boring theoretical subject, which does not foster any sense of community service and leaves children unexposed to the real challenges within their community. Utilizing Picon’s equity, “Spreading happiness”, our objective was to give students an active role in improving their community by undertaking real-world initiatives through an engaging civic responsibility program.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Rather than follow the traditional route of donating money to an NGO to implement a CSR project, we created the Happiness Heroes, a civic responsibility program designed to empower school children to make a difference in their community through 4 distinct fields of civic activism: environmental protection, solidarity, health education and school restoration. We partnered with the NGO arcenciel, and spread the program to more than 6,700 school kids in 83 schools throughout the different regions of Lebanon.

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

Several initiative touch points were developed based on Picon’s equity “Spreading Happiness.” A press conference announced the campaign in the presence of 4 national heroes and the Ministers of Culture and Education, and launched across Lebanese schools with BTL posters. Each student received a branded sash, on which a badge was added whenever a student completed a deed. A blog was updated regularly with initiative pictures, and community improvement tips. At year-end, a grand event celebrated the successful completion of the initiatives and recognized all of the participating children, with the winning schools receiving a trophy for their achievements.

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

Several initiative touch points were developed based on Picon’s equity “Spreading Happiness.” A press conference announced the campaign in the presence of 4 national heroes and the Ministers of Culture and Education, and launched across Lebanese schools with BTL posters. Each student received a branded sash, on which a badge was added whenever a student completed a deed. A blog was updated regularly with initiative pictures, and community improvement tips. At year-end, a grand event celebrated the successful completion of the initiatives and recognized all of the participating children, with the winning schools receiving a trophy for their achievements.