The Reach Campaign is a fundraising campaign that aims to end two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, and free the next generation from these preventable diseases. Seven Media was tasked with developing and implementing an integrated communications strategy that would amplify the campaign and allow it to resonate locally as these diseases are not present in the UAE.

The ultimate objective of Seven Media’s work with Reach is to help to increase donations. As a result, the ’50 Days to Transform 5 Million Lives’ was launched in the run-up to UAE’s Golden Jubilee. Through to 50-days campaign, we tapped into national pride by aligning with the UAE’s 50th anniversary, we created a clear CTA with a sense of urgency for people and partners to participate, and we made the campaign tangible, so that everyone who donated, no matter how much, knew they were truly making a difference to someone’s life. By the time the campaign hit its halfway mark, it had raised enough funds to protect the lives of over three million people, and one of the seven beneficiary countries, Niger, announced the official elimination of river blindness on 8 December 2021 at Expo 2020 Dubai. Niger is now poised to be the first country in Africa to eliminate river blindness – the World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to verify Niger’s river blindness elimination in 2022.

Communications efforts resulted in a total of 330 pieces of coverage, equating to 1,211,708,348 OTS, AED 4,426,877 in AVE, and AED 13,280,631 in PR Value, and the campaign was awarded the Highly Commended Best Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign at the 2022 edition of the PRCA Awards.

Seven Media also adopted a fresh social media strategy that launched Reach’s ‘50 Days to Transform 5 Million Lives’ with a bang. We set out to drive donations to this noble cause through engaging, informative, and interactive social media content, whilst at the same time, increasing brand awareness of the Reach in the online space. We engaged our partners and the community in more ways than we have before, and the results were nothing short of amazing.