2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

The UAE is a melting pot of many nationalities and cultures, housing a large number of expats. Approximately 65,000 of the expat population are women who are the main breadwinners in their family who have a hectic work schedule, with an average income of $6 per day. With this meager pay they have suffered at the cost of staying away from their children. Bound by contract, travelling home is limited and calling their children is a luxury they cannot afford. Our idea was to develop an emotional connection with these women in a meaningful way.

Results and Effectiveness

On Mother’s Day itself we shared video on social platforms of YouTube and Facebook. • Total Views: 1.35 million • Total Shares: 100 • Positive Comments: 300 • Improved overall perception of the bank • Increased brand score to 29.3 Within a matter of weeks we had consumers recognizing the women at the camp requesting to contribute towards these women.

Creative Execution

We decided to surprise them at their camp on Mother’s Day in a way they weren’t expecting. Without the mothers' knowledge we got their children back home to record messages of love for their loving mothers. We used simple technology to turn these messages into personalized greeting cards Taking the sound recording, we created sound chips and placed them in greeting cards and gave them to the unsuspecting mothers. To showcase the plight of these women, we recorded the initiative and shared it across our social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

While majority of the spotlight was focused on the blue collared construction workers, we undertook the task of finding a labor camp for women. There were whispers in the market about women labour camps and sourcing out one was like finding a needle in a haystack. After weeks of searching, we finally found one in located in the interiors of the industrial areas of Ajman. Gaining the access to the women in the camp was much harder than anticipated, we were turned away, more than three times due a number of problems, one of them being a rat infestation problem.