Picon: HAPPINESS HEROES [video]

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: BEL GROUP
Agency: LEO BURNETT BEIRUT
Category: Best Use of Integrated Media
Advertising campaign: HAPPINESS HEROES
Senior Art Director: Davina Atallah (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Regional Executive Creative Director: Malek Ghorayeb (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Communication Manager: Hala Akiki (Leo comm)
Communication Executive: Misbah Natour (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Chief Creative Officer: Bechara Mouzannar (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Communication Supervisor: Hisham Kekhia (Leo Burnett Beirut)
PR General Manager: Jo Chemali (Leo comm)
Creative Director: Tania Saleh (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Art Director: Marya Ghazzaoui (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Senior Art Director: Nayla Baaklini (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Group Communication Director: Peter Mouracade (Leo Burnett Beirut)
Product PICON SPREADABLE CHEESE
Product/Service: PICON SPREADABLE CHEESE
Entrant Company : LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Contributing Company : LEO BURNETT BEIRUT, LEBANON
Describe the campaign/entry:
The realm of Branded Entertainment in Lebanon is an active and dynamically growing industry. Through various commercial mass audience shows and initiatives, the Lebanese audience has become primed for branded content and entertainment. Several TV shows such as The Voice foster people participation and engagement. While there are some restrictions on user content on TV, i.e. religious censorship, there are no legal restrictions to content communicated online.
Results:
The current curriculum in Lebanese schools treats civic education as a boring theoretical subject, which does not foster any sense of community service and leaves children unexposed to the real challenges within their community. Picon briefed us for a corporate social responsibility campaign mainly targeting kids and schools, in order to rejuvenate the brand and make it relevant once again amongst the Lebanese youth. Utilizing Picon’s equity, “Spreading happiness”, we gave students an active role in improving their community by undertaking real-world initiatives through an engaging civic responsibility program. 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: health education, school restoration, environmental protection, and solidarity – each field represented by a mascot and a badge. We partnered with the NGO arcenciel, and spread the program to over 50 schools throughout the different regions of Lebanon. The Campaign was launched in 2011 in schools with BTL posters and badges that the kids could collect at the end of each successful activity. In order for the kids 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. The campaign was announced to the public during a press conference in the presence of the minister and the initiative ambassador. At the end of the year, a grand event was held so that kids could have fun and play with the other members of the initiative, and celebrate their accomplishments together. Through these touch points, we were able to successfully promote the initiative, and spread the reach beyond just our target audience.
The audience was drawn to the content though the heavy media coverage of the initiative and the high profile initiative ambassadors/spokespeople who joined the program. Kids were drawn to the competition though the BTL activation, with posters in schools and their ability to achieve milestones in the form of badges that they can pin to their branded Picon sash at the end of each successful activity. The media was drawn to the campaign through the human and societal relevance and civic responsibility, and the platform with which we aimed to tackle the issues.
6,700 children in 83 schools: • Collected 2.5 tons of bottle caps • Recycled 2 tons of paper • Planted 1,250 Trees • Aided 158 needy families • Entertained 2,000 elderly • Prepared 40 awareness campaigns • Renovated 15 Public Schools • Organized a marathon • 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. During a press conference on November 30, 2012, a Ministry of Education representative officially announced that this initiative inspired the Ministry reform the civic education curriculum by adopting this program in schools