2019 Winners & Shortlists

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

In general, any communication in Saudi should avoid the use of religion, politics or controversial topics like tribal affiliation or regional divisions. Additionally, nudity, sexual language, language deemed indecent or female characters that are not veiled are all not allowed.

Describe the target audience

Our campaign was mainly focusing on Saudis who believe that diabetes is inevitable and mainly caused by genetics rather than bad lifestyle habits and behaviors. Due to increased governmental communications, many are now numb to public awareness messages.

Background

Saudi Arabia is facing a major health challenge. Almost one fifth of Saudis are diabatic and the numbers are only increasing. To combat the disease, our brief was to launch a nationwide awareness campaign about the causes of diabetes. Our objective was to create a long-term behavioral change by educating the public about the various lifestyle behaviors that increase the risk of diabetes, while doing so in an attractive, convincing & memorable manner.

Describe the creative idea

“Don’t ill-Behave” was our creative platform. It is a call for action to change the norms and behaviors that are making Saudis ill. We translated this platform into a campaign under the headline “Lose your Habits” and launched it via a memorable, fun & sharable song that will make Saudis stop, think and ultimately act.

Describe the strategy

With the socio-economic transformation that has been disrupting life in Saudi, the government has been heavy on awareness messages regarding various issues, challenges and changes. No wonder why many Saudis are now numb to public awareness messages. So, for us to be heard, especially that our message is dry & is an attack on age old habits, our strategy was to ditch the traditional way of preaching and stating hard-facts and instead using a more fun and enjoyable language, that is less annoying, more enjoyable and memorable. So instead of going hard sell, we decided to simply poke fun of the topic.

Describe the execution

We launched with a 2 minutes music video showing different scenes of bad habits, traditions and behaviors that are frequent among Saudis. The campaign poked fun at what people thought was the right behavior. We launched on the most popular online platforms along with mini-videos showing specific scenarios of behaviors leading to diabetes. We also launched 8 cartoonish posts of different habits leading to diabetes on Twitter & Instagram. The same creative was used on the ministry of health’s physical and online assets. The whole campaign was also endorsed by famous online celebrities, public figures and medical experts giving it more credibility and reach. This was supplemented by on the ground activities nationwide PR coverage. The campaign ran for one month during November.

List the results

Our campaign was one of the most successful public awareness campaigns in KSA with an earned PR Value of 10 million Saudi Riyals and a total of more than 5,199,246 views. Media impressions were about 6M & interest in diabetes increased by 25% compared to previous months, becoming the #1 trending healthcare topic in Saudi Arabia. And the cherry on top was that we changed a serious preachy public awareness topic into a fun, sharable and palatable one