2019 Winners & Shortlists

THE RIGHT START INITIATIVE

BrandJOHNSON’S BABY
Product/ServiceCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
EntrantMEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryBusiness Citizenship / Corporate Responsibility
Idea Creation MEMAC OGILVY Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production SILVER BULLET FILMS Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Why is this work relevant for PR Lynx?

Johnson’s Baby has been a purpose-driven brand for more than 125 years, helping parents care for their newborns with gentle skincare products. The Right Start CSR campaign strengthened the brand’s perception as a trusted, experienced caregiver by facilitating and maintaining conversations among consumers, government, charities, and brand partners on a vitally important cause. Overall, the campaign reinforced a reputation Johnson’s Baby has built and nurtured since 1893 but in a modern context, and as a result, drove demonstrable behavioural change for both the brand and those it strived to help.

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. Meanwhile, our PR objectives were to generate global conversations around the issue – one that’s widely overlooked, while also building brand trust and affinity, and positioning the brand away from competitors.

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 found across the region. We secured primetime TV interviews with spokespeople on Dubai One and Al Arabiya, alongside other tier 1 outlets like The National. The PR was backed by striking, cinematic digital content and in-store activations that tied the campaign to the brand’s products. A focused influencer marketing strategy prioritising authentic relationships allowed us to reach our defined audience, supported by a partnership with Mumznet, the most influential parent portal in the region. A dedicated campaign microsite drove further engagement with our core audiences, and the full scope of multi-discipline activities was mapped out across three phases from October to December 2018, creating and sustaining a consistent conversation.

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 among government staff began to spark meaningful change, while the influencer teaser campaign generated interest across social. On October 08 we launched, executing a media relations plan focused on earned opportunities across regional tier 1 broadcast, print and online outlets. Influencers revealed the mystery of their earlier post, sharing our hero video to introduce the campaign. Meanwhile, the full video reached our owned and earned channels. The registration of October 08 as International Birth Registration Day also created a lasting legacy of awareness. Post-launch focused on sustaining conversations through interviews with spokespeople across regional tier 1 media. The full campaign video reached the same outlets and owned channels, while the microsite content revealed the brand’s activities in more depth.

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.

Credits

Name Company Role
Juggi Ramakrishnan Memac Ogilvy Dubai Chief Creative Officer
Sami Moutran Memac Ogilvy Dubai Managing Director Abu Dhabi
Juliana Paracencio Memac Ogilvy Dubai Creative Director
Logan Allanson Memac Ogilvy Dubai Creative Director
Ammara Khan Memac Ogilvy Dubai Business Director
Luke Morris Memac Ogilvy Dubai Head of Production
JoAnn Kharma Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Director
Florencia Casares Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Manager
Sarah Mansour Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Executive
Joe Lipscombe Memac Ogilvy Dubai Director of Content
Nick Driver Memac Ogilvy Dubai Content Manager
Sawsan Abdillahi Social Lab Associate Account Director
Atul Shenoy Memac Ogilvy Dubai Business Director
Maha Najem Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Manager
Raaed Rahmat Memac Ogilvy Dubai Account Executive
Wayne DeLange Freelance Director
Diana Keam Freelance Executive Producer
Coralee Long Freelance Editor
Vivian Nasamu-Odior Babycare, AMET Marketing Director
Souha El Jisr Johnson’s Baby (Newborn and Kids), AMET Assistant Brand Manager
Jennifer Gow Babycare, AMET Marketing Director
Gokhan Ozgan Johnson’s Baby, AMET Project Manager
Sara Eid Babycare, AMET Regional Shopper Marketing Manager
Sana Takieddine Babycare, AMET Shopper Manager
Tiago Cortez Memac Ogilvy Dubai Copywriter
Prajakta More Memac Ogilvy Dubai Copywriter
Roberta Totaro Memac Ogilvy Dubai Art Director
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