Title	THE SHARED STORY OF HARRY AND AHMED
Brand	UNICEF
Product/Service	SUPPORT CHILD REFUGEES
Category	D05. Real-time Response
Entrant	180 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	180 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	SMUGGLER London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Al Moseley	180 Amsterdam	President & Chief Creative Officer
Dan Treichel	180 Amsterdam	Executive Creative Director
Dave Canning	180 Amsterdam	Executive Creative Director
Hannah Smit	180 Amsterdam	Creative Director
Rachel Kennedy	180 Amsterdam	Art Director
Alice Anselmi	180 Amsterdam	Account Manager
Jordan Cross	180 Amsterdam	Producer
Bethany Papenbrock	180 Amsterdam	Executive Producer
Olivier Klonhammer	180 Amsterdam	Executive Producer
Ben Armistead	180 Amsterdam	Head of Planning
Sarah Gough	180 Amsterdam	Business Affairs
Hilco Beukema	180 Amsterdam	Editing
Joshua Neale	Smuggler	Director
Fergus Brown	Smuggler	Executive producer
Chris Barrett	Smuggler	Executive producer
Emma Butterworth	Smuggler	Producer
Adam Evans	Smuggler	Producer
Antonio Paladino	Smuggler	Director of photography
Paul Hardcastle	Trim London	Editor
Ed Hanbury	Trim London	Assistant Editor
Juan Pablo Thummler	Wave Amsterdam	Sound designer/mixer
Dafydd Upsdell	MPC London	Post producer
Kayleigh Dugdale	MPC London	Post producer
Paul Wilmot	MPC London	VFX Lead
Matthieu Toullet	MPC London	Colourist
Sylvana Knaap	Getty Images	Stock Footage Researcher

The Campaign

Our idea taps into the global consciousness, showing the world that one of our greatest mistakes is being made again. The Shared Story of Harry & Ahmed shows the shocking parallels between Syrian child refugees today and the child refugees of WWII. In a split screen, Harry (an elderly, Jewish WWII survivor) and Ahmed (a young, Muslim, Syrian boy) describe their real, horrific journeys as child refugees, in their own words. Those words come together to build a single narrative. Footage accompanies their story, illustrating their strikingly similar experiences: both escaped violence and persecution and were separated from their parents; both fled on their own, endured a treacherous journey by boat, and had to wait for permission to enter the safety of another country. Their identities are revealed and the message is clear: We didn’t do enough to protect child refugees during WWII and now the story is being repeated.

Campaign Success

Our idea taps into the global consciousness, showing the world that one of our greatest mistakes is being made again. The Shared Story of Harry & Ahmed shows the shocking parallels between Syrian child refugees today and the child refugees of WWII. The video was released on social media just 5 days after Trump’s Muslim Ban. The powerful story was shared on Facebook, Twitter, and numerous online articles, quickly fuelling support from celebrities, politicians and public. The film was even translated into multiple languages and spread internationally around the world. In less than one week, the video had reached over 7 million people.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The shared story of two child refuges 80 years apart struck a global cord. With no paid media, and in less than one week, Harry & Ahmed’s story reached an audience of over 7 million people. Its message was widely covered by the mainstream press and shared by major media outlets including CNN, Huffington Post, Aljazeera, Forbes and Mashable. Key news sources and publications in 15 different countries across the world also covered the story. Unicef offices around the world quickly translated and shared the film, giving it a truly global reach. Most importantly, over 100,000 people have shared the video on social media, including some of the web’s most high-profile celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, Shakira, P!nk, George Lopez and John Legend. The film has fuelled global support for child refugees, and Harry & Ahmed’s shared story has become an important piece of the ‘Refugees Welcome’ movement.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The Story of Harry and Ahmed is a film that portrayed a message that all viewers can relate to – the world’s “greatest mistake”. The film was made in response to Trump’s Muslim Ban, posted just 5 days after the event. Using native social media platforms and without any paid media support, the video was picked up by over 50 publications. It became part of the larger refugee conversation that was already taking place across Unicef’s social channels and prompted an overwhelming response from viewers.

It was important for this video to strike a chord with viewers online. Unicef was eager to capture the attention of as many people as possible to act both a reminder and a warning of how serious the situation is in Syria. With the Immigration Ban that had just taken place viewers felt even more encouraged to share this story. The film was striking enough for people to share it – and the reveal at the end of who the story-tellers were kept viewers engaged until the end, an important metric across social channels. After the video already gained some traction on social channels, we reached out to publications (Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Mashable, etc), whilst many others picked up on it of their own accord. Given the nature of the content, it gained momentum quickly and publications across the world, from Poland to Argentina, had published articles about the film).