2014 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

For an absolute $0 cost, the SAPNA wall became the first crowd-sourced nail art piece for charity, attracting over 55 different nationalities, popular Arab celebrities and entertainers. #sapnadubai became a popular social media topic and 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. And 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.

Creative Execution

Being a non-profit organization, the media strategy and budget was focused on earned and free media vs. bought media. And we did it all at $0 media cost. A Facebook event invited all of UAE. And emotional stories via digital films were shared with SmartLife's B2B partners. On launch day, we set up the SAPNA wall on a very popular street in Dubai, during the Dubai Shopping Festival - a festive time that attracts huge crowds. Location cost = pro bono. #sapnadubai increased word of mouth and made the wall popular on social platforms. The SAPNA wall continued to become more famous as we were unexpectedly featured on leading Radio (Virgin Radio, Radio Mirchi), Print (Khaleej Times' City Times) and TV (Dubai One) channels. As the wall was completed, the dream came to life, with all the nails forming the image of a child being gifted a graduation hat.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Brick-by-brick and nail-by-nail, over a million blue-collar workers build the dreams of UAE and its people, while silently holding their own dreams of giving their children a quality education and hence, a better life. But, truth is that even though they labour tirelessly, with some workers hammering up to 200,000 nails a month, their monthly salaries (as low as $200-$300) might never be enough. SmartLife Foundation (an NGO for UAE’s blue-collar workers) wanted to help. So, we created SAPNA (Dream) - a canvas with 17,793 designated markers designed by Pointillist artists and installed it on a wall on a popular street in Dubai, during the Dubai Shopping Festival. We invited people to buy a nail for a minimum of 10 AED (~$2.7) and hammer it onto our designated markers. SAPNA gave people a chance to feel a fraction of the workers’ efforts and give back one nail at a time.