2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

People were invited to download the app and keep their phone locked for as long as possible each night. For each minute they kept their phone locked, Lenovo donated a minute of data to a migrant worker in the Middle East, so that they could call their families back home. This tackled two contrasting problems at the same time. On the one hand, migrant workers who don’t get to speak to their families enough are given the means to contact loved ones back home. On the other, people who are so glued to their screens that they ignore the family right in front of them have a good reason to put their device down. But they were not asked to sacrifice any of their own data, which made it a win-win situation. Hadia Time created a platform of goodwill, and value exchange between all involved and communicated Lenovo’s core values.

Creative Execution

People are predisposed to donating during Ramadan. So we developed Hadia Time, a mobile app that was in keeping with the spirit of Ramadan. Lenovo is aware of both the virtues and the vices associated with its product. But turning the vices into virtue meant giving people an opportunity to spend less time on their phone and donate that time into data for workers who really needed it. The app was promoted on popular sites, was easy to download in English or Arabic, and ran for the month of Ramadan. Hadia Time translates into English as (Gift of Time) so the name of the app itself encouraged uptake. It allowed people to give generously but effortlessly, because none of their own data was actually used. Whilst it required a small sacrifice of online time by users, Lenovo actually donated data based on the number of minutes saved.

Results

People spent 2,855,984 million minutes away from their smartphones and with their families (1,983 days/ 66 months), the equivalent of 5.5 years. That meant the equivalent of 5.5 years of family time was donated to migrant workers. We reached 5,127,035 Million Video Views on Facebook & YouTube 21,300,000+ impressions 31,235 App Downloads The App reached the number 1 spot in KSA in the Lifestyle Category, outranking prayer apps in Ramadan. As a brand, Lenovo got important temporary real estate on all the phones of those who downloaded the app, in the form of a branded platform. It created tremendous goodwill among migrant workers – a group for whom mobile phones are an important tool for adapting to a new environment. The app encouraged a positive behavioural change, as family time is central to Ramadan.

People spend too much time glued to their mobile phones. During Ramadan, normally a time for family and quiet reflection, this actually increases significantly. We realised that this made mobile phones the most direct medium to get people’s attention and turn a problem into an opportunity. So we developed Hadia Time, a free mobile app that encouraged people to put down their smartphones and spend more time with their families. The app monitored a phone’s down time and converted it into free data for migrant workers in the Middle East, tackling two contrasting problems at the same time.

We wanted to instill positive smartphone behaviour. We targeted people spending more time with their phones than with their family during Ramadan. Social media dramatically increase during this period, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s heaviest users. For those more fortunate, being in the presence of a smartphone often means you’re absent from the people around you. Meanwhile, for Blue Collar workers in the region, a mobile phone is the only way to connect with their family back home. With salaries as low as $200 a month, and the majority of their wage being sent back home, staying connected (average $27 per 1 GB of data) comes at a high cost. Hadia Time was developed to encourage the fortunate to spend more time with their families whilst allowing those less fortunate to spend time with theirs during Ramadan, a time for giving.