2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

More than 93% of kids play video games. And with the pandemic, children are spending more time in their rooms and, consequently, gaming. Uncoincidentally, reports of online sexual abuse are emerging with unprecedented frequency worldwide, with some perpetrators grooming hundreds and even thousands of victims (according to a review of prosecutions & academic studies). The objective was to do something that would get parents talking about. So, we decided to reimagine headsets and transform them into powerful tools and, most importantly, conversation starters. Because the only way we’ll end this issue is by talking to kids and making this a topic of discussion in every home. The campaign budget was 120K AED, including production. And with this amount of money, we managed to produce 100 devices and cover the seeding costs as well.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

Mobily and its eSports division are aware of the company’s social responsibility in ensuring that children (and the public at large) are always safe while gaming. And when we discovered online video game lobbies were becoming hunting grounds for predators, we decided to dive even deeper. Because if you put yourself in a predator’s shoes and imagine a 100-person Fortnite match, you can quickly come to the conclusion that one of the easiest ways to single out young, innocent, approachable players is by their voice. With this in mind, we decided to make a small tweak in the usual gaming headsets and create a one-of-its-kind, innovative product, that modifies children’s voices so they sound significantly older. By doing this, we can mask their ages and identities, stave off predators who are looking for potential victims and transform normal headsets into conversation starters.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

By joining voice modifying technology with the normal headsets, we created and designed a first-of-its-kind device that gives new purpose to your child’s headset. This was a pure design development job from functionality up to aesthetics. Because we needed to ensure that the voice-modifying hardware would fit seamlessly within the headsets earpieces as much as we needed it to look modern, slick, and appeal to the younger audiences. The whole design development process included designing and modeling the device from scratch, choosing the right materials and pieces of hardware to ensure the best sound quality and aesthetical end product. And obviously, create a device that would fit our budget and could be done to a certain scale (<100 devices).

List the results (20% of vote)

The goal here was to raise awareness for the cause and make gaming safety a topic of debate amongst parents. And in just 15 days, the initiative gathered impressive results: 800M impressions, 10M USD in earned media, over 2,000 media clippings, and 900 cumulative TV broadcasts in the region and the world. Investing in the design and creation of a new device proved to have immense returns. And with no media budget, we accomplished our initial goal of helping make the gaming world much safer for all.