2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The Lebanese judiciary system never incorporated any kind of texts punishing domestic violence. After years of lobbying, a law against domestic violence drafted by the NGO Kafa was finally going to be proposed for voting in Parliament. Kafa came to us to help them put pressure on Members of Parliament. Women representing 52% of the voting force, we decided to threaten the MPs with the one weapon that could make a difference: OUR VOTES. Our statement was clear: Vote for us, We’ll vote for you.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

In our country, when the Lebanese vote during elections, they soak their thumb in blue ink to ensure they only voted once and did not use someone else’s ID to vote twice. We invited activists, female TV anchors and trendsetters to color their thumbs in bloody red (instead of the voting “blue”) and threaten overtly and on TV. We also encouraged them to couple their posts with threatening statements against politicians, asking overtly and simply for the tradeoff: I will vote for you only if you vote for the law on Domestic Violence, using the hashtag of #Nolawnovote.

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

• More than 22 million Twitter impressions in the first 2 weeks from 51 countries • More than 20,000 physical & digital red thumbs gathered • 700% increase in online conversations about domestic violence • 350% increase in comments on Kafa’s Facebook page • 23% increase in followers on Kafa’s Twitter page • 1.7 million USD in earned media • 2 million people exposed to the campaign from the TV news coverage only in a country of 4 million • On April 1st 2014, the law passed.

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

On Vote Day, MP’s were meeting inside the parliament, while media and activists were prohibited from entering. We wanted to increase the pressure. The faces of the MP’s voting for the law were placated outside of the parliament LIKE A GIANT OUTDOOR DISPLAY, and each time an MP was voting against the law, his/her face was covered with the activist’s red thumbs. A private text message was sent to the MPs while the session was taking place, to ensure each one felt DIRECTLY AND INDIVIDUALLY the pressure of our red thumbs.