2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The crisis in Afghanistan dominated all newsfeeds across the world, as the world watched in disbelief the fall of Kabul and the heart-wrenching footage of innocent civilians hanging onto airplanes and parents giving away their kids to foreign soldiers to get them to safety. While people engaged with this content online, their support was limited to likes and emojis. The campaign reached 1,023,528, achieved a total of 2,614,251 impressions and 422,383 people engaged with the video. This led to a total of 132 donations and $ 21,500 were raised to help Afghanistan.

Background

In August 2021, as terrorist group Taliban took over Kabul, newsfeeds were flooded with horrific images and videos of Afghans hanging from airplanes and handing out their children to foreign soldiers in hope their little ones would get to safer lands. And the world reacted, through hashtags and emojis. Only. But we all knew Afghanistan needed more than that. And the ICRC knew that better than anyone. With its mission to protect and provide help to victims of armed conflicts, it has been serving the people of Afghanistan for over 30 years, providing crucial help to a nation that has been suffering for decades. And even in Afghanistan’s darkest hours, the ICRC remained true to its mission. However, they needed urgent donations to keep their teams operational in Afghanistan and provide aid to a population in peril.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The heart of the idea is that if people put their money where their like is, greater change can happen. While online support is important, it is not enough. People in crisis need more. We wanted to remind people of this hard-hitting truth – real people need real support. Using an algorithm, we converted their online reactions into monetary value, and then used them to calculate how many real-life needs this money could’ve resolved. These results were shown in an emotional data-led film, that we launched right where people were supporting Afghanistan the most – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube. Based on previous findings, we targeted those who had engaged with Afghan content online, as they were more prone to act. We went a step further and created shorter edits targeting people who reacted with specific emojis to show them the value of their reactions.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Initial data revealed that 55% of people who engage with NGOs on social media take some action, and another 59% go onto donating money. Given the urgency, we knew that those already engaging online with the Afghan crisis are more prone to act quickly. We created an emotional data-led film that reminded people that a dollar can change more than an emoji or a like. Based on our campaign message and since our audience was interacting online with the crisis, we launched our video on social media platforms, making sure our message was loud and clear. We also took an extra step and created shorter edits to target people reacting with specific emojis to show them the value of their reactions to encourage them to react in real life.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Because the ICRC needed donations, and needed them fast, we knew sharing our call for help with a wide audience might take time to spread. Therefore, we decided to target a specific audience that was already engaging with the crisis in Afghanistan online and showed them the monetary value of their online reactions, encouraging them to react in real life as well. The video was launched on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, through the ICRC’s official accounts. By doing so, we reached an audience that was already moved by what’s happening, which lead to an organic spread amongst a wider audience. People shared the video on their profiles and pledged to donate to the ICRC. The viral spread of the video on social also led to it being picked up by media outlets, such as Adweek, Adobo and Communicate, amongst others.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign spread wide across the different platforms and countries. It reached +5,000,000, achieved a total of +2,614,251 impressions and 422,383 people engaged with the video. This led to + 200% increase on donations to help Afghanistan.The campaign was also covered by different media outlets such as Adweek, Adobo and Communicate amongst others.