2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Khalifa Fund has been working with Emirati founded startups for 3 years. The objective was to inspire more UAE Nationals to pursue entrepreneurship and support them to grow and succeed. The target audience were Emiratis with an interest in solving larger challenges faced by the world today. The desired outcome was to increase interest in entrepreneurialism. startAD has worked with over 6000 aspiring entrepreneurs and 300 startup founders in the last two years. While there are many entrepreneurial activities in the ecosystem currently, focused and substantive programs that help businesses off the ground and to any real scale are still limited.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Khalifa Fund has been working with Emirati founded startups for 3 years. The objective was to inspire more UAE Nationals to pursue entrepreneurship and support them to grow and succeed. The target audience were Emiratis with an interest in solving larger challenges faced by the world today. The desired outcome was to increase interest in entrepreneurialism. startAD has worked with over 6000 aspiring entrepreneurs and 300 startup founders in the last two years. While there are many entrepreneurial activities in the ecosystem currently, focused and substantive programs that help technology-enabled businesses off the ground and to any real scale are still limited.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Based on 1-1 interactions and listening sessions with aspiring Emirati entrepreneurs, we recommended a 100-day immersive and intense incubator with clear milestones and impact. The objective was not just to support these entrepreneurs to grow, but to - create a compelling narrative highlighting these homegrown emerging entrepreneurs and their journeys as they grow from early prototypes to robust ventures - provide resources and access to those who are already exploring entrepreneurship, - create real and accessible role-models and communicate their success and struggles with transparency - to build a legacy of new Emirati entrepreneurs that will inspire future generations to walk this path

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Thus #100daysofIbtikari was born. Over a period of six months, 100 pieces of content celebrating the spirit of creativity, resourcefulness, resilience, and entrepreneurialism from across the emirates were highlighted. These were also mapped to the entrepreneurs who were accepted into the program and parallels between each step of their own journeys were drawn out. #100daysofIbtikari brought alive stories of home-grown innovators, which in turn inspired a new league of curious entrepreneurs to follow in their footsteps. It also built a reverb-chamber of advocates among traditional titans such as leading local family businesses, corporations, and government entities, who encouraged and celebrated these innovators.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

The objective of the campaign was to reach a highly selective niche audience. The results speak for themselves - The campaign resulted in close to 200 qualified ventures applying to the program - 20 startups were accepted into the program - 10 progressed till the last stage and received financial grants from Khalifa Fund - 3 teams were also showcased at the global Entrepreneurship Festival at New York, placing these young Emirati entrepreneurs on a global platform, at par with the best from around the world - The campaign reached 336.9k people and had an average engagement rate of 3.48% among influencers that included investors, startup experts, media, policymakers, corporations, academia, and government entities. PR Results: Coverage: 43 pieces Online readership: 31.2 million Estimated coverage views: 556,000 Social Shares: 21 Print Circulation: 49,500 estimated Social results: Impressions: 366.9k Reach: 254.6k Average engagement on reach per post: 3.48%

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

While most entrepreneurship accelerators focus on the topics, speakers, or startups in their programs, Ibtikari aimed to demystify the journey of an Emirati entrepreneur working on a tech-enabled venture. Chronicling these individual journeys and mapping them to cultural traits of creativity, resourcefulness, resilience, and entrepreneurialism built a compelling narrative that resonated with aspiring Emirati entrepreneurs. Startups embracing failures, talking openly about their learnings, and growth were well-received. Further, showcasing their growth, milestones, and success with a highly curated program created an aspiration among their peers.