by Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) A recent highly impactful campaign in the Ghanaian social media space is not, surprisingly, from one of the ‘usual suspects’; it’s a charity-driven one. While the “FOOD for ALL” campaign has kickstarted conversation on Twitter and Facebook, it has not gone viral but it uses many elements worth discussing, as pointed out by our Springleap creative panel in Ghana.
The campaign is aimed at establishing the first food recovery bank in Ghana. A collaboration between Chefs for Change Ghana and Save Food, the initiative is based upon the appreciation of saving food for poverty-stricken Ghanaians. According to the campaign’s website, the nation could be losing US$8.9bn every year —because 35% of food produced in the country goes uneaten. Yet over 30% of Ghanaians cannot afford a decent, healthy meal every day.
The impact touches two powerful incentives:
- To rally consumers together in aid of feeding those who cannot afford to eat
- To spread awareness about food wastage in hopes of building a more constructive and waste-free future for Ghana.
“To help reduce food wastage and hunger in Ghana by creating sustainable means of nutrition for the mentally challenged, aged, street kids, vulnerable and society at large.” — An official goal
Our creative panel has commented upon some strategic elements of the execution and provided us with relevant feedback.
Dissecting #Food4ALLGh
The campaign is structured for social media and digital implementation, as these platforms serve as the voice to communicate missions, goals and latest news. It has been rolled out for a while, so targeted consumers — less-privileged, ‘impoverished’ citizens all over the country, but also volunteers to help execute the campaign and distribute food nationwide, plus the general public from word of mouth — are not strangers to its message.
The messaging, according to our creative panel, is impactful because of the physical involvement that volunteers have been encouraged to partake in. The campaign has aimed to make its mark on social media channels, but also to follow through with ensuring the logistics run smoothly. ‘Offline’, the campaign held a public launch pre-execution in Accra, boosting the campaign’s awareness, especially for consumers who don’t use social media feverishly. The combination of ‘offline and online’ brand awareness may have been the leverage that has resulted in talkability.
The campaign’s Facebook page effectively communicates the call to action of the campaign. It is full of promotional multimedia, as well as copy that reinforces the core message of the campaign. The account also serves as a platform for additional digital print ads, such as one which communicates relative events associated with the campaign.
On Twitter, consumers have taken to using the campaign’s hashtag, #food4allGh, and it may be seen throughout the stream of the official account, @Food4AllGh. The conversation ranges from how people feel that the campaign is doing a lot of good for Ghana to general positive shoutouts. The account itself is doing its part to boost the campaign’s message by posting Tweets like “When humanity leads, the world will be at peace. When hunger is no more, the world will be smiling. #food4allgh” and “A woman or a man with a full belly can move mountains. Let’s feed the world. #food4allgh”.
When humanity leads, the world will be at peace. When hunger is no more, the world will be smiling. #food4allgh
— Food4AllGhana (@Food4AllGh) September 28, 2015
A woman or a man with a full belly can move mountains. Let’s feed the world. #food4allgh
— Food4AllGhana (@Food4AllGh) September 28, 2015
Our creatives agree that the social media elements kickstarted the campaign and was the most impactful medium to use. However, they also emphasise a very engaging element: a song written to boost overall execution effectiveness. Trigmatic, a Ghanaian hip hop artist, was chosen as the “goodwill ambassador” for the campaign, and offered to write, record and produce a song. The reason it’s boosted overall effectiveness is because of its pleasant sound, which the audience has been enjoying.
Insights and advice for South African brands
Our creative panel in Ghana stresses that Ghanaians are intrigued by great concepts. Usually, charity-driven campaigns lack an important essence: creativity. So the success of Food for All Ghana, according to our creatives, could be linked to its engaging social media strategy, even though it has not gone viral.
According to our panel, South African brands wanting to enter the Ghanaian market will resonate well with their target market if they push for social media campaigns. However, it is uncommon for a brand to have a digital-only strategy. As in many African countries, digital is used as a support for the main ATL campaign. Strategy diversity is thus expected when using digital.
References
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Remon Geyser (@remongeyser) is a burger fanatic, wine connoisseur and eSports enthusiast (yes, a fancy term for playing computer games). He is also the research lead for Springleap, heading up a new global creative research division while obscurely attempting a PhD. Springleap provides instant creative expert feedback to rock marketing ROI. Remon contributes the new weekly “Talk Africa” column, covering Pan-African trends, on MarkLives.com.
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