UNHCR - Campaign to end statelessness in Madagascar
Challenge: In order to pass the Malagasy citizenship bill – so stateless people could get access to basic rights – UNHCR needed to persuade parliamentarians to vote for it. We learned that most of them, do in fact, buy into the premise that statelessness should end. But parliamentarians believed that “even if it’s the right thing to do, it’s not the popular thing to do.” Not all Malagasy people agree that statelessness should end. So, the challenge wasn’t to preach to a group of parliament decision-makers. It was to influence the populus, so that they would support the decision and exert influence on those in parliament to end it.
Method
I was hired to deliver a 5-day strategy sprint, to quickly identity the key issue and opportunity for the campaign. And to support our Malagasy creative partner, Logia, to develop creative for UNHCR. I conducted interviews with UNHCR representatives and our Malagasy team, conducted rapid desk research on the issue and outlined the findings to our international team. I used the most inspiring insights to develop a creative brief for our Malagasy creative partner and helped them shape creative before launch.
Key Insight
Malagasy people fear their own diversity.
Stateless Malagasy often struggle to be accepted because they don’t ‘look’ Malagasy. A terrible hangover from colonial times. So if we want to persuade parliamentarians to end statelessness, we need to get Malagasy people embracing their diversity. Because it is their greatest untapped strength.
Strategy
The campaign needed to celebrate the strength and beauty of all Malagasy people. Showing them that, united, we can move Madagascar forwards. This starts with ending statelessness.
I learned that the general public falls into one of three camps:
• THE UNINFORMED – The majority are simply unaware of the issue.
• THE APATHETICS – Some are aware of the issue but don’t care about it.
• THE FEARFUL- A wealthy, influential segment are aware, but believe they have something to lose from ending statelessness.
We needed a creative approach that would make an invisible issue, visible. Turn apathy into passion. And show how ending statelessness benefits everyone. We needed an approach that would help the campaign cut-through into social discourse and get noticed by people that would have no reason to care. We needed to show up in unexpected spaces, via unexpected yet popular allies. If we were going to build positive interest in the issue, we needed allies to be central to the campaign so that we could use social proof for the cause.
A positive uniting message was needed. The ambition was to win minds by winning hearts.
Execution
The game-changer here was working with a popular Madagascan band, called Reko. Their values and backgrounds aligned beautifully with our campaign message and tone; they are seen as inclusive, kind, and embracing of diversity. They composed a song called ‘Samy Malagasy’, celebrating the strength and beauty of all Malagasy people, and showing that we must unite to move Madagascar forwards.
These were popular protagonists and positive role models, that provided social proof of support for the issue. This partnership also meant that we could raise the issue of statelessness though unexpected channels/spaces, broadening its reach; via the medium of music. Our local agency partner delivered a song/track release, TV spots, Radio, Paid social, Billboards and Press.
