2019 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural/Context information for the jury.

Wadi: An Arabic word for a valley that usually has a dry river, except when it has rained, common in desert areas. Emirates Nature-WWF (EN-WWF) is an organization affiliated with the globally recognized World Wildlife Fund, that carries the same message to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the environment. For that reason, EN-WWF’s campaign was set to focus on the 5 key habitats in the UAE - one of which being the Wadi. A symbol of the country’s natural heritage, Wadis are home to some of the rarest animals in the world and hold a high significance to the UAE. However, due to human negligence, some of them have been closed off to the public in order to allow its delicate ecosystem to recover. This recognized an urgent need for EN-WWF to highlight it as a key habitat of UAE.

Write a short summary of what happens in the ambient or digital execution or campaign.

To promote EN-WWF's program 'Connect With Nature'(CWN), we created a Wadi themed escape room. A box that gave away nothing on the outside was actually a simulated Wadi, confined within 4.8x4.8meters. The participants signed up in teams of two to four and were taken on an unexpected journey. They find out they might be caught up in an impending storm and need to ensure they have access to shelter, clean drinking water and food resources. In the 10minutes they had to decipher clues and tackle challenges, the participants also gathered key messages with a hands-on learning of survival skills. The immersive quality of the experience was enhanced with thunderstorm sound effects and elements of a real-life Wadi. The adrenaline was palpable as the participants scampered to solve puzzles and decipher clues. The concept of storytelling and education, merged together to give the audience an experiential insight into the CWN program.