2019 Winners & Shortlists

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To shoot our film, we secretly reached out to Kifah who brought his wife Saria onset, under the impression that we were just going to interview her. We then documented Saria and Kifah’s raw and unscripted reactions in a powerful piece of content captivating the whole nation. In order to maximize reach and engagement on social, we adopted a form of content that is trending and frequently consumed online:” Social News”. The headline:” Woman sees husband for the first time in 5 years” created a shock factor driving people to watch it and participate in this special act maximizing the film’s reach.

Describe any restrictions or regulations regarding Healthcare communications in your country/region (imposed by healthcare regulatory bodies, government, TV stations, etc.)

Lebanon lacks any infrastructure and health care catering to people with disabilities, making their insertion in society practically challenging. Healthcare companies do not advertise to the public relying solely on B2B, therefore the general public is not aware of the available solutions.

Describe the target audience

Our communication was targeted to the Lebanese public globally and the disabled citizens particularly who are frustrated and feel disconnected from the government due to the absence of basic infrastructure, technology and health care catering to people’s needs/disabilities.

Background

Alfa, 1 of the 2 government-owned Telcos in Lebanon, have also been committed to bringing real and positive change to Lebanon through their CSR program Alfa 4-Life supporting Lebanese NGOs particularly the Blind and Deaf. Alfa has been pioneering digital transformation across the country, championing UN SDG 9 related to industry, innovation and infrastructure among others. However, even with all this tremendous progress in CSR, coverage, internet technology and innovative products, Alfa’s efforts remain unseen and unacknowledged by the people. Because Lebanese telco rates are some of the most expensive across the region/world, providing the government with the second highest source of revenue after taxation, people feel robbed and far from them. Our challenge was to reconnect Alfa with the people and substantiate Alfa’s credibility/ability in providing technology at the service of human health as opposed to being an opportunist corporation doing the Government’s bidding.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

In a country where people feel so disconnected from their government and telco providers, we worked to show them that there is no connection that can’t be restored. As a natural continuation of our CSR work with the visually impaired, we sought to restore a woman’s (Saria) eye sight using E-Sight glasses, enabling her to see her husband (Kifah) for the first time in 5 years on the occasion of Valentine’s Day.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

This unfortunate reality where Lebanese people are continuously exposed to problems caused by the system, paired with people’s negative perception of government affiliated corporations like Alfa, creates a wide disconnect between the people and these institutions. If we can open people’s eyes though heart/warming and most importantly genuine content, enabling them to see past the general corruption and acknowledge Alfa’s position as a leader in providing technology and innovation at the service of human health, then we can untimely reconnect with them.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign was a great success and we were able to reconnect with the people shifting the conversation from negative to positive on all our social media channels in just 4 days. People were proud and relating to the brand’s initiative. • Sentiment: 96% Positive Sentiment • Engagement: 1.5+ Million Content Engagement • Reach: 2+ Million People Reached • Impressions: 5.5+ Million Impressions • Views: 3.6+ Million Views (In a country with 6 Million Inhabitants) But our campaign did not stop there, thanks to the overwhelming reach/results, we achieved: • Number of Inquiries: - 124 Inquiries, 240 Patients Screened (43 found eligible) - 11 people’s vision was restored Sales/Revenues: 36.85% increased Alfa Line Sales