Unilever’s OMO and FP7 in Dubai Introduce #KidsToday to Reach the Least Active Kids in History
FP7 in Dubai, a McCann Worldgroup agency, is introducing #KidsToday in the Middle East, a digital campaign aimed at helping Unilever’s OMO to reach out to the parents of the kids on the couch
The problem:
Kids today are not experiencing life as they should be. All the free time they have is most likely spent with electronics, which are preferred by parents who wish to keep their children safe and clean of course. Research shows that, on average, children spend less than an hour a day in active play, which means 23 hours idle and inactive.
The challenge:
How do we provoke the mothers of the least active kids in history to do something about it? How do we change their perception of dirt, show them the benefits of active play and the importance of dirt for their children’s healthy development?
The idea
To get the conversation started in a bold way, PF7 launched a painfully dull 23 hour live stream showing a kid doing what kids today do best: absolutely nothing. (Well, apart from sitting on a couch playing video games, watching TV and ‘hover-boarding’ to and from the bathroom in between episodes).
The 23-hour video went live on a YouTube Masthead, Twitter/periscope and Facebook live, accumulating over millions of watch time minutes and thousands of comments from a provoked audience.
PF7 then launched 2 other videos, one that literally translates the fact that kids today spend on average 7 hours in front of screens, and another one to show that little girls spend 4 hours daily watching TV.
They also partnered up with kidsFIRST Medical Center (KFMC), the leading children’s clinic in the UAE that works with infants and children to ensure their academic, physical, and emotional growth. The goal of this partnership is to educate parents about the importance of play and provide tips and advice from experts that PF7 dubbed call “dirtologists”.
After shedding light on the inactivity of kids today in the first week of the campaign launch, FP7 revealed an emotional plea from kids, delivering a powerful message to convince their moms to let them get dirty today so they can learn for tomorrow. The film encourages mothers to feel proud, not angry, when their children play and get dirty, because the lessons they learn from getting dirty last longer than the stains that can so easily be removed.
