2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The holy month of Ramadan encourages us to step back from the clutter of our routine and focus on the charity and community aspect of life, wherein supporting the less fortunate goes way beyond mere monetary donations. Our target audience is constantly looking for avenues to carry out charitable acts. The true challenge faced, is how to activate all those good and altruistic intentions. Clothes donation was one of these right intentions that often got put off, because it was not convenient to go to the right place with all your pre-loved clothes and make a donation, it was easier to just discard these clothes. Our insight was pegged around the fact that if we reached out to people with our message and made it easier for people to donate, we could convert the right intentions to actions. “Share a touch of Love” with OMO and Comfort, was launched. We would collect clothes from people, wash them with OMO and Comfort and with the help of our association with RedCrescent, reach these donated clothes to refugees around the world. We tied up with 12 KOLs, which included Bloggers,TV presenters..etc who volunteered to take part in an invitational video urging people to participate. It was aired on YouTube and Facebook. We received massive media coverage on TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites and Blogs. Engaging radio spots were also aired. We set up 38 collection points across the UAE’s malls, gyms, offices, schools and residential communities, as well as a donation hotline for pick-ups.

The Brief

Our purpose was to take up the social responsibility of fulfilling the basic need of clothing for displaced refugees, so they could live a life of dignity and hope, a task which was a perfect emotional fit for our clothing detergent brands. • Messaging Reach - Facebook targeted reach: 2.1M, targeted engagement: 7% • Clothes Collection – Target: Collect 129,000 clothes which would be washed with Comfort and OMO and donated to those in need.

Results

Our target was to extend our message to the maximum number of people. We exceeded expectations. Facebook Reach – Target: 2.1M Actual: 3.5M (1.6 times target)* Facebook Engagement – Target 7% Actual 8% (1.14times target)* Key Opinion Leader Video - 1.7M views on YouTube, 135K views on Facebook* Total PR value exceeding AED 2.6 million was generated during the campaign period^ (*Source: Facebook Data, ^Source: Unilever PR) OBJECTIVE 2: COLLECTIONS We had set ourselves an ambitious target of 129,000 clothes. By the time the campaign had ended, we realized that we not only surpassed our ambitious target, but had also BROKEN THE WORLD RECORD with over 146,000 clothes donated. This was truly an achievement, as we could make a difference to the lives of thousands of people by giving them access to proper clothing, giving them hope and much needed comfort.

Execution

To announce we tied up with 12 KOLs, which included Bloggers, DJs and TV presenters, who volunteered to take part in an invitational video urging people to participate. They had a combined reach of close to 1 Million followers. It was aired on YouTube and Facebook. We received massive media coverage on TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites and Blogs. On Facebook pages, we invited fans to donate while generating daily interactive content. This included daily posts of fans donating, updates on the number of donations collected, messages and appreciation from donors and fans. Engaging radio spots were also aired on prominent radio English and Arabic stations. We set up 38 collection points across the UAE’s malls, gyms, offices, schools and residential communities, as well as a donation hotline for pick-ups. Moms could place their donations in our boxes while kids could write a message of love to accompany their clothes.

The Situation

The holy month of Ramadan encourages us to focus on helping the less fortunate. Whilst our target audience is constantly looking for avenues to carry out charitable acts, the true challenge faced, is how to activate all those good and altruistic intentions. Last year, the Middle East was plunged into turmoil, with wars and unrest displacing a record number of refugees, urgently needing basic clothing and shelter. Comfort and OMO, brands that have helped moms care for their loved ones’ clothes for generations, wanted to help the UAE to pass on a little comfort to those who need it most during the holy month.

The Strategy

The insight we tapped on was, that whilst most people have good intentions and want to make a difference in this world, they seldom act on it; since for us human beings, CONVENIENCE IS THE ENEMY OF THE RIGHT. The 2 cornerstones of our strategy to encourage maximum donations were based on 1) Messaging Reach, i.e. reach maximum no of people with our message, so they are aware and encouraged to donate and 2) Physical Reach (Engage) i.e. make it easy and convenient for people to donate, so there is no reason for them to put it off for later. Since the budgets that we were operating with were not comparable to high decibel brand activation campaigns, we decided to use a judicious mix of Social media, PR and BTL communication to maximize our impact and reach with limited budgets.