2014 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

We wanted to inspire people in UAE to participate in a unique charitable cause for a segment of the society who are often ignored: The labourers. Being a non-profit entity, funds were limited. We needed to create an idea that was so contagious that it spread from people to people and from people to media channels. It needed to be remarkable in order to attract people to contribute and talk about it. Our eventual goal was to help give the neediest children a quality education all the way up to graduation, which is something their fathers have only dreamt about.

The Brief

There are over a million blue-collar workers in UAE, building the dreams of the country and its people. Brick by brick, nail by nail, they are also silently working towards their own dreams of giving their children a better education and hence, a better life. But we discovered that even though they labour tirelessly, with some of them hammering in up to 200,000 nails a month, their monthly salaries (as low as 200-300 USD) might never be enough. SmartLife Foundation (an NGO for UAE’s blue-collar workers) wanted to help build their dreams.

How the final design was conceived

To help build the dreams of those very blue-collar workers who build ours, we wanted to use the same nails they hammered in everyday. In an immersive manner, we wanted to give people a chance to empathize and feel a fraction of the workers' efforts. So, we created SAPNA (Dream) a canvas with 17,793 designated markers designed by Pointillist artists. People could buy a nail for a minimum of 10 AED (~$2.7) and hammer it onto our markers. And as the nails would fill up the wall, the dream would come to life, forming an image of a child being gifted a graduation hat.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

For an absolute $0 cost (production, location, media, volunteers - pro bono), the SAPNA wall became the first crowd-sourced nail art piece for charity, attracting over 55 different nationalities, and popular Arab celebrities and influencers. People's shared photographs which gave us over a 100,000 free social ads combined with the unexpected coverage across TV, Print and Radio, have generated an earned (free) media value of over $400,000 and rising. In just 9 days, all 17,793 nails were bought, giving 20 blue-collar workers’ children a quality education all the way up to graduation; something their parents had only dreamt about.