Title	AFRICA UNITED - WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK
Brand	IDRIS ELBA/CDC FOUNDATION
Product/Service	EBOLA AWARENESS
Category	B01. Education & Awareness
Entrant Company	M&C SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency	M&C SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency 2	TOUCHCAST London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production Company	@radical.media London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Tim Duffy	M/C Saatchi London	Chairman
Matt Roach	M/C Saatchi London	Creative Director
David Lawrie	M/C Saatchi London	Creative Director
Alex Ball	M/C Saatchi London	Composer
Andy Harris	M/C Saatchi London	Designer
Timothy Saccenti	Radicalmedia	Director
Radicalmedia	Radicalmedia	Production Company
Ben Schneider	Green Door Pictures/Radicalmedia	Producer
Alannah Currie	Electric Theatre Collective	Producer
	Electric Theatre Collective	Post Production
	Work Editorial	Editing Company
Julia Knight	Work Editorial	Editor
	Final Cut	Music
	Speak Up Africa	Communications Agency

The Brief

We had two goals: 1. To educate the people of West Africa about Ebola. 2. To inspire support for health workers (on both a local and global level), in turn motivating them not to give up. Getting through to our audience in West Africa would be a challenge, given their mistrust of health workers. It was also important that our message reach as many people as possible.

Creative Execution

Time was critical, so the entire campaign was created and launched in seven weeks. To tackle stigmatisation, we got African football stars to make the unexpected declaration, “I’m no hero”, wearing health workers’ names on their backs to symbolise support for these true heroes. We partnered with TV channel SuperSport to screen the PSA to an audience of 75m during the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent’s biggest sporting event. The call for action #WeveGotYourBack gave people globally a way to lend their voice. For education, our PSA was designed to be screened in stadiums before games: ‘West Africa vs. Ebola’ is a motivational team talk in which a coach (Idris Elba) outlines Ebola’s symptoms and the tactics for how to avoid it. Two sets of posters were distributed in affected regions in local languages, featuring footballers either with messages of support or health messages such as ‘Avoid bodily contact’.

Africa United raised global awareness and support, generating over 300M+ impressions internationally from earned media. Within 48 hours, it was covered by over 300 news outlets and organisations including CNN, BBC News, Reuters, TIME, United Nations, The Guardian, ABC News, The Daily Mail, Fox News, CNBC Africa, NPR, Upworthy, MTV Act, Voice of America, and campaign posters were given free media space in Times Square. The message received a positive response across Africa (measured qualitatively by NGO staff), where it was screened in stadiums and given airtime during the continent’s biggest sporting event. It made a real impact on the heroes fighting Ebola. Health worker reactions following a screening in Sierra Leone: “I almost wanted to give up... but seeing that video makes me feel good.” “I love it! Everybody’s happy about it. It’s very encouraging and motivating for all the workers here. So I want to thank you.”

Our strategy was to use something that unites and influences the nation like nothing else: football. The sport is practically a religion in Africa and players are seen as heroes. We knew that a powerful message delivered by these influential figures would create the PR impact required. The goals of education and inspiring support are very different, so we created single-minded communications for each and developed a brand – Africa United – to unite our global team and the public around the campaign. The football strategy also meant we could leverage partnerships and use football stadium screens to reach the masses.