Farida Elmaghraby

Farah Khayry
JRMC 2202-02
May 10, 2020
Public Service Campaign: Caring Against COVID
Introductory Proposal:
COVID-19 in Egypt
Even though, the Egyptian government has implemented a curfew from 9 PM to 6
AM and encouraged citizens to stay at home, the number of coronavirus cases continues to
soar. In fact, as of May 8, 2020, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Egypt has
reached 8,476, and the number of fatalities has reached 503 (Egyptian Statistics). While vital
for the containment of the disease, the curfew, coupled with the intensifying public anxiety,
presented severe socioeconomic implications for Egypt. According to Manpower Ministry,
approximately 1.5 million daily workers, non-standard workers, and their families are
struggling to maintain a stable income and fulfill their basic needs (Al-Youm). Frontline
workers, such as doctors and nurses, moreover, continue to put their lives at risk to treat those
infected and protect the community and accordingly need the community’s support, which
can be in the form of donations to provide them with the essential medical supplies or as
simple acts of kindness.
The Campaign
In the light of this global crisis, a nation-wide campaign under the name Caring
Against COVID will be launched on May 10, 2020 to promote donations and compassion
towards those affected by the virus and its effects on the Egyptian economy. The campaign is
based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) initiative “Do More, Donate”, motivating
people to donate and contribute to the local and international efforts undertaken to combat
and minimize the impact of the pandemic. The campaign aims to promote compassion and
solidarity within the nation by encouraging any donations of food, medical supplies such as
masks or gloves, or cash as well as acts of kindness and empathy to those around.
Target Audience and Partners
The campaign’s target audience will not merely be those who are relatively well-off
and currently have a stable income and excess to donate but also will encourage everyone,
regardless of their income, to communicate kindness and empathy by, for example, lending a
helping hand to a fellow neighbor or an elderly citizen. Caring Against COVID’s core
purpose is to empower others via endorsing actions that build the much-needed communal
unity during this difficult time. Accordingly, Caring Against COVID will be partnering with
non-governmental organizations (NGO) and non-profit organizations to extend the message
and provide help directly to those who need it, no matter where they are in Egypt. These
organizations include Resala Charity Foundation and the Egyptian Food Bank, which have
especially recognizable effort in providing Ramadan iftar meals to the many families across
Egypt that have been affected by the pandemic, as well as in providing them with personal
protection equipment (PPE) to protect themselves against the infection (Resala; Egyptian
Food Bank). In addition, giving to those in need will relieve some of the pressure that non-
standard and daily workers experience as they struggle to provide for themselves and their
families after their source of income has been compromised.
Logo and Branding
The logo and branding for the campaign are aligned with the aforementioned goals
and vision: to encourage donations and kindness and to invoke a sense of communal
solidarity in Egypt. The logo as well as the branding are designed to be as direct as possible
to avoid misinterpretation and consequently optimize the benefit driven from the message of
the campaign. The campaign’s logo is a visual depiction of the slogan, Caring Against
COVID, as it is comprised of three logos symbolizing kindness, distancing, and donation: the
three pillars of the message to be propagated.
Traditional Media
To broadcast the campaign, TV and radio channels will be utilized to push the
intended messages to as many of the target audience as possible. Statistics show that
approximately 98.8% of Egyptians own a television set in their home and almost 94.1% seek
TV programs for daily news (Allam). Additionally, TV is considered the most trusted
medium for Egyptians (Allam). Hence, to maximize the campaign’s reach, the designed TV
Public Service Announcement (PSA) will be aired during the commercial breaks of the most
transmitted programs on TV, which are political, entertainment, and cultural programs that
comprise 22.65%, 16.3%, and 15.31% of all the programs aired respectively (Allam). To
optimize coverage, the PSA will be aired on both the Nile Channels, which consist of 10
specialized channels under the Egyptian Radio and Television Union targeting the general
public, and the privately held channels that cater for a niche audience, such as Cairo
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), and Al Nahar
TV (Allam).
According to statistics released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and
Statistics (CAPMAS), in 2017, Egyptian radio stations’ total daily broadcasting hours
reached 272 hours in 2016 (Allam). Furthermore, since 2016, the main forms of
programming broadcasted have included entertainment, cultural, and religious programs that
make up 87.21%, 75.8%, and 71.15% of all the programs broadcasted respectively (Allam).
The designed radio PSA, therefore, will be broadcasted during the commercial breaks of the
aforementioned programs as they comprise a significant amount of the total broadcasted
content, boosting the campaign’s reach to its target audience. The two radio channels chosen
to broadcast the radio PSA are Nejoum FM, which broadcasts all-Arabic music, and Nile
104.2 FM, which broadcasts all-Western music in English (Allam). Both stations are chosen
to appeal to the different segments of Egyptian society, as they are widely popular among
listeners in Egypt (Allam). A main advantage of radio broadcasting is that the PSA will reach
people as they go about their day and/or during their commute.
Social Media
On another note, social media will also be employed to disseminate Caring Against
COVID’s message and goals as widely as possible. In Egypt, there is approximately 49.5%
internet penetration, which equals to around 38 million users (Allam). Also, mobile internet
subscribers have reached around 32 million, while the number of home internet subscriptions
has increased to encompass 46.5% of the Egyptian population (Allam). These users, as of
2017, spend 26 hours per week online (Allam). Lastly, social media users in Egypt account
for 30.5% of the entire population (Allam). Accordingly, it is evident that posting online and
on social media holds great potential for the campaign to directly reach the audience. The
social media platforms to be utilized will be Facebook and Instagram, to take advantage of
Facebook’s 70% share of all social media users in Egypt and Instagram’s diverse visual
communication features (Social Media Stats Egypt). For Instagram and Facebook, posting
challenges to do acts of kindness to those around, appreciation notes to send to loved ones,
and promoting the contacts of Resala and the Egyptian Food Bank will encourage the
audience to interact with the content by donating and spreading kindness, even virtually, to
those around them in this time of anxiety and confusion.
A main advantage to using social media is that not only will the audience interact with
the content themselves but will also comment with and tag their friends and family in the
posts on the campaign’s Instagram and Facebook posts, whether they are challenges,
appreciation posts, or contacts to the aforementioned non-profit organizations, and
accordingly spread the intended message. Social media will be used to create content that
would be visually appealing and interactive to the audience by incorporating GIFs, graphics,
images, and text. In addition, the live options on both Instagram and Facebook add a potential
to create real-time engagement with the audience and promotion for the campaign, by for
instance hosting live at-home concerts featuring famous singers and artists from across Egypt
to promote local charities and food banks. Furthermore, hashtags, such as
#CaringAgainstCOVID, #HandinHand, #StandingTogetherYetApart, #KindnessCommunity,
#DoMore, will be used with the social media posts as they will aid the audience in knowing
what the campaign is about in a few propagated words and potentially push the campaign to
going viral by connecting any post with any of these hashtags back to the campaign.
Essentially, hashtags are a useful tool in promoting the posts further and linking the hashtag’s
collective social media presence back to the main campaign, extending the message further
and wider compared to other mediums. With all of these tools, Caring Against COVID will
be able to effectively reach its target audience, promote its core messages, and provide help
and assistance to those in need across Egypt.