2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

The Taa Marbouta, in the Arabic language, is a letter, but more importantly, it is used as a feminine pronoun added to the end of a word. By adding this letter It denotes the feminine aspect yet it makes any word/job/act appear weaker. Taa Marbouta literally means the tied “T” so the idea was to redefine the one letter that identifies women and change it from tied to untied. By changing the physical features of the letter, the features of a woman began to reveal herself both physically and characteristically, redefining the letter Taa Marbouta to a pronoun of empowerment. By empowering the letter, we showcased to women around Egypt that they too can be empowered and be able to change the perception from weakness to strength. To be a strong producing woman that brings forth a proud statement that “Taa Marbouta is your Strength”.

Execution

Women and Girls were the anchor of the campaign and all the presented challenges/solutions/components are based around the concept of changing the model of the Egyptian society towards women in Egypt. The “Taa Marbouta” campaign adopted a one brand to gender based issues on a general core principle which addresses women rights with a holistic approach. The Taa Marbouta calls to help women realize and unleash the strength within, to come out and claim that their power lies within their femininity in a country where it’s a burden to live in as a woman. The campaign was organically spread on magazines, talk shows, on ground, and even across boarders. Across a period of 6 months the holistic campaign became a symbol of women empowerment across all social media portals and PR coverage.

Tier 1: Legislation change in penal code number 242 in 2016 allowing for aggressive repercussion for FGM Tier 3: 60 million social media organic reach 490,000 women reached on ground 5.4 million EGP earned media

The Situation

The campaign objective was to change perception of women in Egypt by empowering them to conquer the fears and stereo types out there in the market. The campaign heavenly depended on making a movement of women empowerment using the Taa Marbouta icon to create momentum. The campaign manged to reach 60 million Egyptians via social media and earned 5.4 Million earned media. The many different influencers and leading women inspired the movement and created role models for women to aspire towards to change the behavior and instigate women empowerment. .

The Strategy

The “Taa Marbouta” campaign includes various target audience groups at a number of social and economic levels. It dealt with them as main/active participants not just passive recipients. Through this campaign, we meant to reach different target audience groups with tailored messages and techniques that fits each group and effectively touches on the relevant social norms and core values of each group. Taa Marbouta Campaign addresses not only women, but the community as a whole, and seeks to alter how society views women’s roles, while also handling subjects like sexual harassment in an effort to empower women not to be afraid to take actions against anyone abusing them. The campaign portrays women in many situations facing daily challenges in Egypt, and it shows them breaking through the barriers and standing up for themselves, in spite of being born into struggles/inequality that are against them.