Mo Salah is one of the most followed celebrities, utilizing Salah as a talent in a brand sponsorship was a mission. We wanted to find the soft spot between engaging the audience with both Salah and the brand. Salah; a prolific player had become the personification of hope, perseverance and success. We wanted to stay true to that, shedding the light on the star like unseen before; on the REAL person that he is, and connecting the fans with him in a fresh engaging approach. We have integrated Salah's character with DHL's promise to deliver an engaging real human experience.
Background.
Having built its legacy on a proven track record as a more traditional monster in logistics handling, DHL’s expertise as a courier service for sending packages from people to people has been lost on many. Particularly on today’s generation who are born in a virtually driven world. And they can’t be blamed. DHL’s previous communication efforts in the MENA region targeted B2B specifically, and their expertise, which are very much adept to serve consumers effectively, were not recognized by our target as anything more than catered for businesses. This very misperception, coupled with consumption and correspondence behaviors shifting to online, gave DHL an opportunity to reassess how their focus can include B2C communication in the MENA region. With an asset like Mohamed Salah, exposure and engagement wasn’t the challenge. It was how we would utilize his impact in a way that was both original and relevant to the brand’s role.
Describe the creative idea.
THE HUMAN NETWORK
Nothing really beats the feeling of receiving a package from a loved one. However, there is no question that digital and social media platforms have enabled our world’s connections to transcend place and time. That, while for the most part, increased interconnectedness is owed to these platforms, our lack of authentic connections is as well. And it’s become a hot topic of debate; is social media sabotaging the human touch? The short answer; yes. In a world where swiping right is synonymous with asking someone out, and birthday celebrations are reduced to a “story” on your page, it’s time for people to reassess their interactions.
DHL Express wanted to remind people that no matter how much you can interact with others on social networks, nothing can compare to the impact of real human connections; by disconnecting from the virtual and connecting them via “The Human Network”.
Describe the strategy
Our consumers belong to the ‘WE’ generation, a generation that strongly believe in the power of connectivity; Social media and the proliferation of tech have made ‘connecting’ as easy as a click of a button. Was that enough? In such a hyper-connected world, it’s equally as easy to feel like we’ve lost the human touch. As a logistics service, ‘connecting’ is at the core of DHL’s business, the strength is in speed of services, vast network and the unmatched number of employees. To build our platform, we would have to strike the balance between DHL’s hygiene factors and consumers’ need for authentic collaboration, which the partnership with Mo Salah can offer.
But what is the Egyptian King without the fans? While those fans were only able connect with him on social platforms, it was time for DHL to take him offline to redirect them to experience DHL’s Real Human Network
Describe the execution
48-hour blackout:
A social media hiatus became the best way to implicitly showcase our message. Mo Salah was to deactivate his social media accounts across platforms for 48 hours, through a cryptic tweet, building further anticipation as to the meaning behind his subsequent disappearance. The idea was to spark a conversation, and for DHL to lead the narrative. DHL announced their ability to connect Salah to the people in search of him. Engagers were directed to a microsite “dhlconnectsyou.com” promising 50 fans the chance to send packages to the footballer in celebration of 50 years. His social media comeback was accompanied by a film telling the story of how DHL helped 5 REAL fans connect to him.
The essence of the campaign was simple, in a world where social media has become the only way to connect to one another, DHL can only connect you in a real human way.
Describe the outcome
Not to consider the campaign’s organic global outreach, the campaign has witnessed unpresented PR results in the only MENA region.
The organic online PR coverage of the campaign has reached 2 billion impressions, and the total organic PR & ad value were worth of $3,731,256, and $ 1,193,978 respectively.
With the film launching first on Mohamed Salah’s social platforms the film has recorded organic 6 million views, with no paid media to support the campaign launch. Additionally, the campaign results have achieved almost 90 million impressions, a reach of 31 million, 130,000 likes, and 80,000 shares, across the various social platforms. This was coupled with a record breaking of $0.01 average cost per view, which is 5 times below the industry average.
In two weeks only, 1061 submissions were uploaded on the microsite, which has witnessed a page traffic of 76,355 views.