2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

For a campaign with such reach and depth, integration was an inevitability when devising The Right Start, a big impact CSR initiative from Johnson’s Baby. Although PR-led, the campaign began on social and ended in-store, with a broad mix of owned, earned, and paid media activities mapped out in between. A common creative thread, from assets to concept, ran through the entirety of the campaign across its multiple disciplines – a vital component given that we were tasked with engaging a region.

Background

Today, 230 million babies around the world and 91 million babies in the MENA region do not have a birth certificate. This results in a lack of basic human rights, needs and protection, and leads to displacement, statelessness, and the inability to prove they’re a child in the eyes of the law. While the consequences of unregistered births are severe, awareness of the issue is worryingly low. Johnson’s Baby wanted to shine a spotlight on the issue and use its leadership position in the baby skincare product category to create positive, lasting change for some of those affected. Our campaign objective was to improve access to - and the provision of registration facilities in underserved parts of the region, while our marketing and communication objectives were to strengthen brand trust and affinity, differentiate the brand from competitors, and position Johnson’s Baby as the #1 preferred baby brand among millennial parents.

Describe the creative idea.

Our creative concept was encapsulated by the campaign message: providing the right start for newborn babies. This aligned perfectly with Johnson’s Baby’s own purpose: to create a world where every baby thrives. Marrying the two, the campaign helped ensure newborns were not immediately disadvantaged by a lack of a birth certificate, extending the care Johnson’s Baby provides through its products to a broader purpose. Supporting the concept, we registered the campaign launch date, October 08, as International Birth Registration Day, creating a lasting legacy of awareness. For creative assets, we travelled to two continents and shot a series of beautiful, cinematic films that told raw and honest stories of families affected by unregistered births. Building interest before launch, we also devised a teaser campaign that saw influencers share numbers denoting their birth date and nothing more, creating an air of mystery and speculative chatter before the campaign reveal.

Describe the strategy

Partnering with Save the Children for its expertise, we engaged millennial parents in the Middle East who are digitally-savvy, socially connected, and cause-driven. Reaching them required paid, earned and owned opportunities to tap into the different consumption habits across regional markets. A focused influencer marketing strategy used Instagram to tease and reveal the campaign, amplified by spokesperson interviews with tier 1 TV channels Dubai One and Al Arabiya, alongside print outlets. The PR was backed by striking, cinematic digital content that fed our activities across disciplines, including display advertising on parent portals we’d identified as being most influential in the region. A campaign microsite drove further audience engagement, while in-store activations carried the concept offline, tying the campaign to the products. Our full scope of multi-discipline activities was mapped out across three phases from October to December 2018, creating and sustaining a consistent and coherent conversation across every platform.

Describe the execution.

Pre-launch, we went on-ground to engage government, charities, families and third parties in local markets on the campaign and its aims. The birth registration programme and activities to build registration skills within government sparked meaningful change, while the influencer teaser campaign generated interest via Instagram. On October 08 we launched, executing a media relations plan focused on earned opportunities across tier 1 TV, print, and online outlets, while our influencers revealed the mystery of their earlier posts. Display advertising appeared on Mumznet post-launch - the region’s most influential parent portal, alongside other parent portals of Supermama and 3a2ilati. This was complemented by a campaign of paid social comprising Facebook carousels, Instagram stories and Instagram TV, and YouTube ads, all featuring the same cinematic content shot on-ground pre-launch. In-store, the activation disrupted parents visiting retailers including Carrefour and Spinneys across five markets, engaging them in the campaign beyond headlines.

List the results.

Tier 1 Over 75 media clippings across tier one print, TV, and radio publications, earning USD 675,000 in PR value and USD 225,000 in advertising value. Tier 2 123,600 page views were generated through display advertising on Mumznet, with 83,200 users landing on the page and spending 94 seconds there - well above the brand benchmark. The email campaign earned an open rate of 4 percent higher than the industry average. The newsletter campaign performed as much as 5 percent higher than average. 21 regional influencers helped the teaser campaign achieve 297,950 impressions. 16 influencers who posted the reveal video gained total reach of 342,883. The campaign video performed well above average for audience retention, reaching 93 – 96 percent. The activation engaged 90,363 shoppers in the campaign across five countries, returning an ROI of 5.69%. Tier 3 The brand recorded a 7-point increase in market share across regional retailers.