Picon: HAPPINESS HEROES

Credits & Description:

Client BEL GROUP

Product PICON SPREADABLE CHEESE

Entrant LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON

Type of Entry: PR: Sectors and Services

Category: CORPORATE REPUTATION

Title: HAPPINESS HEROES

Product/Service: PICON SPREADABLE CHEESE

Entrant Company : LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON

Advertising Agency : LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON

Advertising Agency 2 : LEO COMM BEIRUT, LEBANON

Name Company Position

Bechara Mouzannar Leo Burnett Beirut Chief Creative Officer

Malek Ghorayeb Leo Burnett Beirut Regional Executive Creative Director

Tania Saleh Leo Burnett Beirut Associated Creative Director

Jo Chemali Leo Comm Pr General Manager

Nayla Baaklini Leo Burnett Beirut Art Director

Marya Ghazzaoui Leo Burnett Beirut Art Director

Davina Atallah Leo Burnett Beirut Art Director

Peter Mouracade Leo Burnett Beirut Group Communication Director

Hisham Kekhia Leo Burnett Beirut Communication Supervisor

Misbah Natour Leo Burnett Beirut Communication Executive

Hala Akiki Leo Comm Senior Communication Executive

Describe the campaign/entry:

The Happiness Heroes Campaign’s purpose was to instill civic sense in children by encouraging them to improve their community - a daunting task that required careful planning of media and the messaging, as well as constant engagement with the various audiences. Young Students were given the chance to give back to their community through waves of social service activities & deeds organized over months. This campaign was dependant on ensuring that the happiness heroes and their deeds were at the center of every story. Given the content of the campaign, this was achieved by enabling the media to experience their exploits. Journalists, bloggers, ambassadors, government officials and even professional athletes, shared the deeds of the Happiness Heroes, resulting in substantial word of mouth. The campaign also garnered great appreciation for the mass public, as the Happiness Heroes made appearances on several popular talk shows and the news. The on the ground amplification helped created additional presence through a large school fair which was crowned by a press conference lead by the student heroes of this campaign. The free media generated was heard, seen, and read nationwide. Furthermore, the relationship with the media was so well managed, that the Lebanese government took notice and used this successful campaign as case study, triggering a change in the educational system. Happiness Heroes’ constant and relevant presence put civic responsibility on a national stage, by exposing the relevant the issues and of the efforts of the most important segment of any nation: the children.

Describe the brief from the client:

Our Client approached us to create a CSR campaign targeting children based on Picon’s equity of “spreading happiness”. We decided to take a look at the different aspects of the Lebanese community that need improvement. We wanted the kids to be the main catalyst in this change so we turned to schools and discovered that Civic Education, the most valuable class for the future of our community, was the most boring theoretical course that does not expose them to the real challenges within their community. Utilizing Picon’s equity, “Spreading happiness”, our objective was to give students an active role in improving their community by undertaking real-world initiatives through an engaging civic responsibility program.

Results:

6,700 of children in 83 schools participated in the program, with astounding results: • Collected 2.5 tons of bottle caps • Recycled 2 tons of paper • Planted 1,250 Trees • Aided 158 families in need • Entertained 2,000 elderly people • Prepared 40 awareness campaigns on Health & Civic Education • Renovated 15 Public Schools • Organized a marathon • And Helped 550 people with special needs participate in sports events. • The initiative generated over $1.8 million USD in Earned Media, reaching over 2.5 million people in a country of 4 million. (Stat Ipsos) But the real result was priceless: during a press conference held on November 30, 2012, a representative from the Ministry of Education officially announced that the engagement created by this initiative inspired the ministry to adopt this program in schools, thus reforming the civic education curriculum.

Execution:

Working based on Picon’s equity, “Spreading Happiness”, we developed several means to promote the initiative. The Campaign was announced with a press conference in the presence of 4 inspiring national heroes and the Ministers of Culture and Education, and was launched across Lebanese schools with BTL posters. A branded sash was distributed to each student to proudly wear, and whenever a student spreads happiness through a deed that improves the community in one of the fields, a badge representing that field was added to the sash. To track their progress, a blog was developed and updated regularly with pictures of the activities and tips on improving the community they live in. At the end of the year, a grand event was held to celebrate the successful completion of the initiatives and recognize all of the participating children and schools. During the festivities, a winning school for each field was awarded a trophy of excellence, while the best-performing school kids were crowned as the ultimate Happiness Heroes.

The Situation:

The Lebanese media is exceptionally fragmented and very little content is dedicated to the development of civic education or responsibility. The content that the children are exposed to through schools and media wasn’t doing enough to help prepare our future generations for the challenges society. We identified the opportunity to improve the community by undertaking real-world initiatives through an engaging civic responsibility program lead by our future: the students. We needed to generate enough exposure and presence for the campaign to successfully create awareness around societal issues and the necessity to tackle them.

The Strategy:

Rather than follow the traditional route of donating money to an NGO to undertake a CSR project, we created the Happiness Heroes, a civic responsibility program designed to empower school children to make a difference in their community through 4 distinct fields. We partnered with the NGO arcenciel, and spread the program to over 50 schools throughout the different regions of Lebanon.