2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

Background - population growth is mainly concentrated in Upper Egypt - Every 10 women can have up to 35 kids - One family in upper Egypt can have 12 to 15 kids. - Men are a main deciding factor. - The belief is that kids are “Sanad” meaning “support” mainly to the father in the land and in earning money - you can only influence the younger target The challenge: Develop a tonality that is light hearted and far from preaching. objectives: 1- Generate awareness of the importance of family planning in rural areas and upper Egypt. 2- Refute the biggest misconception that is well entrenched in the target group: "Too many kids are a source of financial and social support and are never a burden"

Describe the strategy

Target audience: - Males 18-25 in rural areas who are more likely to accept the message. - Newly weds / rural Creative approach: - Capitalize on of the love of the target group for soap operas and comedies to open a dialogue about the economic challenges that faces big families with a limited income without being offensive. - The main protagonist makes fun of his situation in order to gain acceptance. - The brand spokesperson that is a household name, a familiar face, relatable and a box office mega comedy star with a huge number of followers. (Akram Hosny) - Build the campaign around a character profile named Abou shanab “ Man with moustache” to reflect the symbol of manhood in rural areas. - A fresh approach that is not about birth control and not negative but something that creates a buzz to open the dialogue.

Describe the execution

- The campaign was shot in a real rural area. A task that was quite hard to control with a celebrity on location. - A choreographed dance following "Michael jackson's" moves with professional dancers waring local clothes was rehehered previously and performed on location to make it authentic. - A stunt team was present to help perform the gravity defying "smooth criminal move". - No animals were harmed during the shoot. - There were two waves the first was in Feb with 3 ads - The main theme song gained 12 million views in the first week and a total of 20M views. - It was placed first on Facebook then was followed by heavy airing for 2 months on satellite stations. - Wave 2 followed in June with a hit song in a train station with 80 dancers performing in one of the busiest train stations in Egypt.

List the results

- Increase in visits to population/family planning clinics by 53% - Increase in acceptance of birth control from those who visited the clinics by 63% - 4 million successful in home visits in rural areas. The role was to create awareness on family planning. These visits were previously not possible however the visitors were the "Abou Shanab" team so people were letting them in. According to the ministry of social solidarity this is a great achievement.