The Brief

In 2013, Dengue, the deadly mosquito-borne fever reached epidemic proportions in Sri Lanka. Infecting over 30,000 people, the disease had taken many lives, including those of young children. ‘Mawbima,’ an up and coming mass-market newspaper, saw an opportunity to connect with its readers and make a difference.

Creative Execution

Our creative execution, which involved an ingenious modification to the ink used by our client, turned Mawbima into the world's first mosquito-repellent newspaper. It gave readers something that was not only original and truly useful but also showed that the paper was innovative and genuinely concerned. The full campaign for Mawbima included press ads and posters featuring letters in the style of Mawbima's masthead stopping mosquitos from passing through - a very powerful depiction of how every letter of every word stopped dengue. The posters used our mosquito-repellent ink provided protection to people at bus stops.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

People read the newspaper in the early morning and evening, the very time the Dengue mosquito strikes. This gave us an idea: if we mixed citronella essence, a highly effective natural repellent, with ink, we could give Sri Lankans a newspaper which not only educated them on Dengue, but where every letter of every word stopped mosquitoes from biting them and also protected them.

Results

Sri Lankans connected with Mawbima like never before ensuring it sold out by 10am despite a bigger print run. This increased sales by 30% resulting in the educating and protecting of an 300,000 people – more than Mawbima ever expected. Mawbima was also featured in over 90 international media outlets featuring the paper. On social media, it earned thousands of likes, shares and comments, including one from Bill Gates. The paper was even cited as an example of how the print industry could revive itself, while publications around the world have shown a massive interest in copying the idea.