2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

As happiness is not a common word in the Egyptian work spaces, the native campaign about the fun and happy aspects in Silicon Valley companies created a huge buzz around the demand of happiness in the Egyptian market. The sky rocketing response rates of the branded part framed Heartwork as an innovative movement, building a human-centric business hub focuses on the employee's well being. The campaign caused a huge ripple effect in the market causing employees demanding for happiness implementation in their work space.

Background

Mountain View, an established brand in residential real estate, would be a new entrant to the offices / commercial real estate market with no portfolio in this sector. The market traditionally competes over per meter prices and the location of the office building or business park. To create a new market space in the offices sector which focuses on the happiness and well-being aspects of community building and architecture, leveraging our brand’s long-time focus on these aspects, and our partnership with Delivering Happiness™ and CallisonRTKL to apply the science of happiness and design in development. - Uncovering the market gap, and creating the demand for happier work spaces - Leveraging our own happy HQs to showcase the impact of happiness on productivity, turnover and business growth - Launch Heartwork as a regional pioneer in this arena by sharing knowledge and expertise through a relevant and unique brand persona

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The idea was to hold the introduction of the Heartwork brand until we have established the need for it. In a phased approach, we went past the mockery, by creating it, triggering the conversation on native channels radio shows and memes. Building on the social dialogue, we established Mountain View’s thought-leadership and shared our knowledge in the science of happiness through an integrated campaign. Through video and influencer marketing, we carried our own experience of a happy HQs to the public. We also opened our doors to a museum like experience in an experiential marketing approach. The brand introduction of Heartwork would come at last and stand out from the common narrative of the commercial real estate with a fun and light-hearted identity.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The reliance on creating a social dialogue meant that we would plan the majority of the campaign as unbranded and native to a much wider audience than our target buyer. We borrowed from blue ocean strategies and content marketing to claim the market space that we have created through carefully connecting the dots in a dense campaign through all the channels consumed by the target. Launching such innovation for the first time caused communicating with both employers and employees, spreading the concept was the main purpose as a start. The ripple effect of the campaign was the reason behind the call to action as international entities in the Egyptian market started reaching out for the innovation application.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Introducing the new "Happiness" innovation into the commercial market in Egypt was a huge risk of being mocked up. Therefore, we pushed the first phase of the communication plan to be native and unbranded, through 46 episodes on the radio discussing happiness aspects found in global entities, and memes that went viral on the social media. Launching the video of Mountain View's HQ video implementing happiness in impressive formats created a huge buzz around Mountain View and towards our understanding to the science of happiness. Launching Heartwork after gaining such huge equity was a great success as we are the initiators of such concept in the region. The scale of the communication divided between unbranded and branded caused the increase of Mountain View's equity, Heartwork's phase 1 sold out in 24 hours, and 60+ requests from local and international firms for happiness consultancy. Exceeding 15.1M views and 330K interactions on

List the results (30% of vote)

Despite aggressive competition in New Cairo, a wait-list of clients has built up after Phase 1 of Heartwork sold out. Our branded and then unbranded comic content viralled, and as planned carrying the experience of our offices to the audience made it all more tangible. Employers large and small expressed their gratitude for the refreshing prospect of a place that employees would happily associate with and bring their whole minds and souls to work at. The campaign was successful at introducing “Happiness” to the narrative of commercial real estate, evidenced by the campaign’s ripple out effect. Employers’ and media refocused their attention to a new way of seeing work and workspaces beyond our planned and paid channels.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

Consumer insights team led the work with the marketing and innovation teams to understand the needs of the end user more than a year ahead of the product launch. Several workshops with our global partners, Delivering Happiness ™ and CallisonRTKL took place including trips to Silicon-Valley to understand the elements, impact and the business thinking behind the latest design trends and technologies used to increase employee satisfaction. More importantly, the concept was tested with local partners and real estate brokers, which led to uncovering the skeptic and humorous reactions, and the broken link between happiness and work in Egypt. Finally, we found out through these experiments that experiencing our happy workplace yourself would be the ultimate way to believe in its serious impact and importance for a business. We needed to uncover the need, create the missing link, and to carry the experience to the larger audience.