Painting the town yellow
Seasonal communications have a big role in capturing audiences talking to them through narratives they care about. It is apparent that the industry is well aware of this and so tries to overcome one another with bold campaigns.
Our work with St. George Beer under BGI Ethiopia extends for more than a year. We had the opportunity to craft the 2013 New Year Campaign of “Words of Positivity” for them and so this time meant we had to go BIGGER & BETTER.
Ethiopia has been in turmoil for quite some time and communities from all over feel this on a heightened level. Hence, instead of associating the new year with “resolutions”, “giving back” and others, we decided to focus on peace. The story initially started with exploring several phrases in our culture that have the word “peace” in them. Since this was restricted to one language, we decided to explore wider.
We visually developed the word “Peace” in twelve of our country’s languages and mashed them up to give us the custom seasonal label for the new year. That was the first visual approved and with that, we were extremely glad our client wanted us to explore further as they usually do with eccentric campaigns like this. Having the label designs approved was a big step, as it is technically the biggest asset that we can employ - 40 million labels to be exact.
From there, we decided to look for that one key visual element of peace… that single thing that will be the center of our campaign. We, once again, looked to our culture for inspiration and found the Adey Ababa, a flower blooming around the New Year, as our symbol of peace. Instead of rivals exchanging harsh words, bullets, and objects of demise, why don't they exchange the Adey Ababa as a symbol!
After conceiving and creating the visuals, our clients took over in making sure we painted the town yellow - trucks, posters, bottles, six packs, events, CSR activities - you name it. Our campaign had reached the smallest towns in the country and it held a message dear to everyone’s
hearts.
We tried to communicate the idea of peace through our social media pages using different pictures and videos that display the current situation but tried to portray this new year as one where we will hopefully overcome our differences and get to a better future .
We decided to launch this campaign during the new year so that it gives hope and a sense of peace to our audience.
