Heroes of the UAE

Background:

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the problem of rising demand for energy in the UAE and its consequences (both environmental, in terms of climate change, and socio-economic in terms of impacts to lifestyles from rising energy costs). A communications campaign has been developed to help the general public, private and public sectors implement practical actions that reduce demand. The remit is federal and it is supported by the UAE government (Environment Agency Abu Dhabi and Executive Affairs Authority).

As a very small part of our population is environmentally savvy, we need to target the mass market as a first step, to spread awareness of the problem. We will also target government institutions and the private sector, with a relevant communication strategy for each group.

The campaign will be staged in phases:

• General public
• Schools
• Private sector
• Government

A. Phase 1

Aim:

To target the general public by raising their awareness that energy is a problem for the UAE. High energy consumption has a significant impact upon our carbon footprint and a negative impact on the environment. We will also educate the general public on the consequences of unabated demand
Desired outcome: Citizens to pledge how they will make sustained reductions in their personal consumption and to follow through on those pledges.

Masterbrand development:

Keeping in mind that there will be future campaigns for sustainability of natural resources, there was a need to develop a masterbrand to tie together all sustainability initiatives. This would allow EWS-WWF to leverage the success of individual initiatives for future efforts and campaigns. The masterbrand would effectively be an umbrella to link,but not overshadow, individual initiatives.

Creative Rationale:

Our communications deliver a very emotional message from the children of Abu Dhabi, appealing to adults to help save the environment for their future. They also contain a very tangible, rational message stating that money could be saved by making some very simple changes in behavior to conserve energy.

We also recognize that the UAE may be a temporary home to many of its residents. Two factors that unite our audiences are their love for their children, and the desire to save, or at least not waste money in an increasingly high cost market.

The creative features everyday kids dressed as ‘superheroes' because they are making a difference to their household energy consumption - the idea is that everyone can make a difference by joining the movement.

All offline communication pushes people to the campaign website, which educates visitors on the scale of the energy problem in the UAE and its impact on the environment. It also features a UAE-specific carbon footprint calculator, and encourages people to pledge to reduce their energy consumption, by showing them how much money they could save by taking small steps to curb energy wastage within their households.

Campaign launch:

The campaign was launched at a press conference held at the Executive Affairs Office in Abu Dhabi, on February 17th 2009.

The message was delivered at the press conference by school children dressed as household ‘superheroes', who made a surprise appearance and appealed to the audience to save the environment for their future.

Push-to-web activity

We have initiated various activities to push people to the website:

• web banners hosted on regional portals and websites, including youtube and facebook:
• A facebook application where users pledge to register and install an icon on their profile page, to show the world that they care about the environment. This application also includes a viral component, where facebook users can send invitations to their facebook friends to download and install the application.

Celebrity endorsement:

We used the Coldplay Concert in Abu Dhabi on March 28th 2009 as a platform to raise awareness of the "Heroes of the UAE" campaign by providing some 15,000 concert attendees with ‘Hero' wristbands detailing heroesoftheuae.ae. Coldplay also showed their support for the campaign by wearing "Hero" wristbands throughout the concert and Heroes of the UAE T-shirts for their final set.

To view the creative click here.