2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

This may be less relevant for this entry as the branded content was a mobile application. When it comes to Digital Branded Content in Qatar, there would be no established restrictions beyond an expectation that it should abide to the countries social sensibilities. In the case of a mobile app it also needs to adhere to the guidelines and policies of the Apple and Google app stores.

Results

Challenge For Breast Cancer Awareness month, the National Cancer Programme wanted to communicate with females in Qatar to emphasize the importance of early detection. ‘Cancer’ is a fear word locally, causing people to be less open to upfront messages about cancer. This suggested that a typical ATL campaign may be less effective. Objectives Our main objective was to deliver an awareness message about breast cancer during the month of October, while also keeping it top of mind afterwards. We also wanted to deliver the message in a more personal way to make sure the audience was more receptive. Strategy Mobile phones are one of the most personal devices available, and is perfect for communicating long-term messages. Knowing that a dedicated ‘breast cancer’ app wouldn’t be received well, we decided to make the breast cancer messages secondary but still make sure the application was highly useful to our target audience. We also wanted to promote the application at a time when females would be more inclined to think about their breasts. Solution After searching, we found that there was an absence of Arabic language Period Trackers in the app stores. Such an app is useful to savvy female smartphone users and an ideal conduit to deliver some subtle messages about breast cancer. At its core, Monthlies is a functional bilingual period tracking application. It also contains advice on self-checks, clinics and set to give occasional push notification reminders on the importance of regular check-ups to help keep breast cancer top of mind beyond October. The application was promoted through tactical placements, including ribbons that were pinned to bras in stores such as Intimissimi and Lulu Hypermarket, as well as posters that were placed inside lockers in female changing rooms of gyms and spas around Qatar such as Qatar University.

We promoted the launch of the application through stands, leaflets and a small but targeted mobile media campaign. The majority of the effort went into small scale tactical media placements relevant to the audience. We aligned with stores in Qatar to place promotional ribbons on bras in stores. In addition, small posters promoting the app and a quick self check guide were placed on the inside of female lockers at gyms and spas at places such as the recreation center of Qatar Foundation.

The locker posters were placed in 7 different locations and more than 19,000 ribbons were placed on bras in 6 different stores. This resulted in more than 1,000 active users of the application. It also achieved a Number 1 ranking as the top free medical App in the iOS Store in Qatar.