2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

If PR isn’t being used as a tool to stimulate behavioural change, then why launch campaigns in the first place? Thousands of campaigns are being launched daily around the world that target significant issues. The difference between these campaigns and ours is the way in which we utilized PR to convey our cause.

Background

We worked off the idea that people will rally to the cause if we made our message simple enough, and gave them a way to voice their support easily. Our message was لا تستهين بالنقطة which literally translates to "Don't Underestimate the Drop/Dot" and roughly to "Every Drop Counts"

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The Arabic language doesn’t just rely on the shapes of letters, but also the dots located above and below these letters. These dots can change what a word means or make it unreadable when removed. Some words in the language may have multiple meanings. With this campaign, we utilized the word “Noqat”, which means both “dots” and “drops”, to create a line in Arabic that translates to “Every Drop/Dot Counts”, however, all dots on this line were taken off. We started with an out of home billboard campaign, and got traditional offline and online news outlets to remove the dots from their logos. Followed that up with what became one the of the biggest viral campaigns in Jordan's history, where people and brands – local and international – posted their name/slogan without dots, including our hashtag.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

No matter its accessibility, people tend to forget that water is in all actuality a finite resource. In order for governments to be able to continue delivering an adequate amount of water, populations must understand that every drop counts. Starting with our country, Jordan is considered to be one of the most water-scarce countries in the world and we decided to take the initiative to deliver this message to the Jordanian population in order for them to translate this knowledge into practice. In order to do so, we approached top-tier publications to remove the dots from their logo to support our cause. They were more than happy to jump on board, to the extent that even print publications joined the initiative. Accordingly, after the reveal, a press release was regionally distributed to emphasize the cause itself and the great impact it had on micro and macro scale.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Over a period of one week, the campaign was categorized into two phases: teaser and revealer. The first phase entailed eliminating the dots from the publications’ logos. As for the second phase, a press release was dispatched in order for our key message to be circulated amongst our target audience.

List the results (30% of vote)

57 millions impressions. 20% increase in awareness about water scarcity in the country. 3.5 million residents reached in the capital of Jordan.