Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on February 6 - 12, 2017.

 

IT is easier to market a product or service when it can be done in a funny, engaging manner. But when it comes to serious issues like domestic abuse, using humour to reach out to target audiences is downright distasteful.

Domestic abuse against women is a significant issue in Malaysia, with 1,353 cases of abuse reported in the first quarter of 2013 alone. But this is believed to be under-reported. The findings of the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) reveal that only one in 10 victims would come forward to ask for help.

In March 2014, WAO embarked on a new campaign jointly with advertising agency, TBWA Malaysia. This was targeted at women experiencing the early stages of domestic abuse to encourage them to seek help.

“Traditionally, the Asian viewpoint is to respect the privacy of family and marital matters. Domestic abuse is not seen as a crime; it is viewed more as an issue for family members to sort out among themselves,” says Sa’ad Hussein, chief creative officer of TBWA.

“This is compounded by the public’s narrow perception of what actually constitutes domestic abuse. Only extreme cases of violence featuring bruised and battered victims are considered serious enough to take action,” he adds.

As a result, there is a lack of proactive action from the public to report incidents of abuse or from the victims to seek help during the early stages of abuse. Up to 80% of the time, victims have already been severely abused when they make a police report.

The key obstacle faced by the advertising agency team was to convince women in the early stages of abuse to overcome this taboo and see the reality of situation that they were in, Hussein shares.

James Best, former chief strategy officer of DDB Worldwide, believes that campaigns seeking to change behaviour (buying, visiting or contacting) are more effective than attitudinal ones like raising awareness or positive imagery.

The WAO campaign adopted this approach in wanting to change the mindset and consequently, the behaviour of women, by getting them to seek help. TBWA and WAO have proved through effective marketing that behavioural change is possible.

WAO found that most victims were in a relationship with their abusers and found it difficult to accept that they were in an abusive situation. TBWA found a core insight through interviewing victims: They would create excuses to justify their partner’s abusive behaviour and rationalise why they are treated this way.

With this insight, TBWA formulated its strategy. It wanted to share the very thoughts that kept victims of abuse trapped, in the hope of making them realise the severity of the situation, and making the decision to seek help easier in the early stages of abuse. “We wanted them to see that there was ‘no excuse for abuse’, which became the core message of our campaign,” says Hussein.

 

The big idea

With the strategy in place, the agency still needed a more effective channel to direct its aid. “For the same reason victims tend to give themselves excuses during the early stages of abuse, they also shied away from calling WAO’s helpline. The personal nature of the subject meant that victims often felt ill at ease talking about it with WAO counsellors, especially for the first time,” says Hussein.

Hence, the live text helpline for domestic abuse — TINA (Think I Need Aid) — was introduced.

TINA represents a discreet and anonymous friend who understands the problems faced by victims of abuse, and could help them come to terms with what they were facing. More importantly, the public could easily reach TINA via SMS and WhatsApp through a registered WAO number: (018) 988 8058.

“This gives victims the freedom to ‘talk’ anonymously with a friend who is always just a text away. It also spares victims from the risk of being caught by their spouse in the middle of a phone conversation,” Hussein explains.

To promote TINA, the “No Excuse For Abuse” campaign was kicked off on International Women’s Day 2014, with a unique fashion exhibition at Publika Shopping Mall, Kuala Lumpur. On display were specially designed dresses, shirts and blouses with “No Excuse For Abuse” hand-stitched in red thread.

Members of the public could pledge their support for the campaign by purchasing a limited edition, customisable T-shirt that promoted #noexcuseforabuse. Proceeds from the sale of these T-shirts were used to help victims of abuse.

“Together with their T-shirt, we encouraged the public to take and upload pictures onto their Facebook page to promote WAO’s cause and spread the news of the campaign virally,” adds Hussein.

“After the initial event at Publika, we extended the exhibition to cover seven other malls across the nation. We also created weekend pop-up exhibitions at train stations and public spaces to reach even more people,” he says.

On social media, #noexcuseforabuse became the central platform for discussion and sharing of stories regarding domestic abuse. “We also utilised WAO’s Facebook page and invited influential woman leaders from both sides of the political divide to become cause advocates by posing with our #noexcuseforabuse T-shirts before getting them to share it with their fans and followers,” Hussein says.

The influential leaders who supported the cause included Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department), Nurul Izzah Anwar (PKR vice-president), Hannah Yeoh (Selangor State Assembly Speaker) and Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (Puteri Umno chief).

 

Campaign objectives and results

In 2013, WAO held an average of 133 conversations on domestic abuse for the first three months. To measure the success, it set the campaign objective of delivering more than two times the current number of conversations per quarter to at least 300 conversations.

The “No Excuse For Abuse” campaign allowed WAO to substantially increase the awareness of domestic abuse. The total value of public relations earned was estimated to be RM1.2 million, more than 120 times the return on investment based on the total investment of RM10,000.

There were more than three million digital impressions in the first week of the campaign, with over 1.3 million responding to the campaign’s digital communications and landing on WAO’s Facebook page and/or website.

The campaign’s content became a hot topic, registering 11,856 engagements per tweet, with a 71% retweet rate.

The massive awareness generated by the campaign had a direct and positive impact on WAO’s objectives. Within the first month of the campaign, WAO saw the number of conversations on domestic abuse increase by 25 times — from an average of 133 conversations in a month to 1,741. It surpassed the total conversations in the whole of 2013.

“We have the power to influence [as an advertising agency]. The results of this campaign are more than just the numbers. We could see people genuinely being helped and reaching out to the NGO. This, money cannot buy,” Hussein says.

 

About Effie Awards

Effie Worldwide stands for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness. The Effie Awards are known by advertisers globally as the preeminent award in the industry, and recognise all forms of marketing communications that contribute to a brand’s success. For educational purposes, Effie and 4As encourage the dissemination of best practices in advertising and marketing communications effectiveness.

 

About 4As

4As Malaysia was formed in 1971 and is the Malaysian industry’s foremost body representing and promoting the values of advertising agencies in the marketing communications industry to advertisers, media, suppliers, the government and the public.

This organisation encompasses over 80 homegrown and multinational member agencies involved in brand strategy and marketing communication. It celebrates, encourages and fosters creativity through brand-building ideas that drive growth and value generation for brands. The 4As promotes best practice and business excellence in all forms of professional advertising practice. It requires its member agencies to invest in continuous professional development in order to retain membership. The 4As engages the business community and government in dialogue to demonstrate the relevance of advertising as an effective vehicle for economic growth.

 

 

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