2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Following natural and man-made disasters worldwide in 2015, people were losing faith in humanity, expressing their anger and grief through social media and in demonstrations. As humanitarians, Alwaleed Philanthropies (AP) wanted to restore people’s hope and encourage active participation from NGOs in order to form partnerships and implement global projects. By launching hope messages under a universal platform of belief that everyone could relate to: “Amen Humanity”, everybody could join the humanity call. We needed to support it with a major philanthropic project to showcase AP’s capabilities and sponsor a unique event to get worldwide attention.

Results and Effectiveness

Online followers soared from 57,000 to 260,000, website visits reached 3 million, and activation participants totaled 25,000. “Amen for a Better Life” featured 750,000 visits and 245,000 applicants. Alwaleed Philanthropies received 1200 volunteer submissions from 50 countries, 18,500 partnership requests from international organizations; and an invitation by The Global Goals to be the lead MENA partner; in addition to collaborating with UNHCR to support Syrian refugees. Thousands of participants in activations and millions of visits revealed an emotional uplift and more awareness. Thousands received homes and cars, while more organizations approached Alwaleed Philanthropies’ to form partnerships for the greater good.

Creative Execution

Our “Amen Humanity” messages of hope echoed across TVs, publications, and outdoors in different languages, directing the audience to our social media pages and the microsite. On the microsite, visitors uploaded their prayers to participate in AP’s humanity call. The campaign was also endorsed by a youtube show. In support, we launched the “Amen for a Better Life” project, offering houses and cars to the needy in Saudi during Ramadan. “Amen Humanity” booths were set up across Saudi. On a global scale, we sponsored the 10 KSA event to form the largest breast cancer awareness ribbon in Guinness world records.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We needed to reach out to international NGOs who could form partnerships with Alwaleed Philanthropies (AP) to launch international projects, and reach out to potential volunteers, social media users, philanthropists, and community activists who could help with projects physically, by donating, or by spreading awareness online. Our target audience also consisted of the poor and the needy who could benefit from AP’s projects. For wide reach locally and globally, we had to launch a fully-fledged offline campaign through TVC, print, and outdoor, a social media campaign and an online user experience, on-ground projects, activations, and event sponsorships.