The Campaign

The intention was to allow the community to express gratitude for their fathers for being the actual strength behind their success. Whilst fathers have toiled hard to fulfill the needs & wants and could be identified as the greatest ‘partner in progress’ of their children, there is hardly opportunity for their children to be reciprocal with their love & gratitude in today’s fast-paced life. Hence the campaign aimed at motivating the younger generation to freely express their gratitude. Rather than taking the route of a usual selfie campaign where fans could send-in a selfie with their fathers and their thoughts the campaign sought to convey the key message of the campaign which is ‘thanking your father before it’s too late’ in a more profound way, through a video touching the hearts & minds of the audience, complimented by posters with the key message ‘Thank You Father’ in the respective language.

Creative Execution

The campaign consists of a teaser and a Competition post. Sketches were used in the video to build the storyline, depicting a story of a father and a son, where the father has helped his son to achieve success & a rewarding life, but the son never getting a chance to thank him. It also shows that the son is realizing it only on the day that his father passes away. The sketches helped to communicate the key message amidst a highly emotional backdrop & invoke a multitude of sentiments towards not only the video but for the entire campaign to be effective. The teaser went live on 12th of June 2017. On 14th of June the competition was announced in all 3 languages. Fans were asked to share the post or tag their father and comment with their favourite picture of their father to win a memorable gift.

The campaign resulted in 600,000+ Video Views & 7,900+ Shares. The post likes was 12,024 & there were 600+ entries. Post Engagement was 442,000+ with a Reach of 1.3 million. The teaser video received a significant response where people started sharing their own experience. Some have even presented their own stories narrating situations similar to what was shown in the video. The video went viral within few hours of posting. Similar responses were received for the competition posts. Though no direct evidence could be submitted for the success of the digital campaign the intensity and the quality of the engagement is a testament to the effectiveness of the campaign. The dynamics of both the strategy and the nature of the platform has enabled this otherwise sensitive message to be communicated effectively.

Our core segment consisted of individuals from a vast demographic ranging from the young to the middle aged who were digitally savvy and engaged with social media on a daily basis. Targeting them through social media we created a unique campaign that utilized sketches throughout to express the brand message. They were presented with a very sensitive proposition of “what do they want to tell their fathers if given a second opportunity to meet them?” led by a consumer insight that many regret that they didn’t have a chance to thank their father’s enough. Facebook emerged the preferred platform as it is the most popular social media platform in Sri Lanka, where people freely express their ideas and shared content. Video content and Photo-Sharing were looked as the key engaging methods of the campaign. Video content and Photo-Sharing were looked as the key engagement methods of the campaign.