July 2020, T-16 days before the launch of the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe: The team of scientists and engineers at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre and the UAE Space Agency was gearing up for the culmination of 5.5 million hours of hard work, to launch the the Arab world's first interplanetary space mission.

Meanwhile the people in the region were just coming out of a lockdown and returning to a “new normal” at different rhythms.

In this challenging time, we wanted not just to raise awareness for this historic moment, but to give it its true meaning of hope for the region, to show that nothing is impossible, not even the dream of space travel.

And we had 2 weeks to do it.

Mass awareness & engagement were the key objectives, and hence the KPIs set were:

1. Impressions

2. Views

3. Engagement

The Arab world has a rich history of scientific achievements, especially in the field of Astronomy. There was a time when Arabic was the lingua franca of literature, art, poetry and science. But in the recent decades, media & pop-culture have made Arabic a symbol of fear & terror.

We saw the first ever Arab space mission to Mars as a turning point in history – the perfect opportunity to not just reignite the pride in the Arab heritage but in the Arabic language itself.

This gave birth to our big idea – the #FirstArabicCountdown, the first-ever Arab space mission to Mars, launched by the first-ever Arabic countdown.

The countdown marks the final moments of years of collective effort and creates anticipation amongst everyone. We wanted to elevate the launch countdown to a rallying cry that unites people creating a feeling of shared pride, excitement and inspiration for the future.

“This probe represents hope for millions of young Arabs looking for a better future. There’s no future, no achievement, no life without hope.” – HH Sheikh Mohammed said, on the launch of Hope Probe. Beyond the scientific objectives, the Emirates Mars Mission is a means to inspire the future Arab generations to pursue space science.

Understanding this facet of the mission led to three defining aspects of our strategy:

One, it wasn’t just about raising people’s awareness of the launch of the Hope probe. Our communication must inspire people & encourage them to get involved and become active citizens & residents.

Second, it needed to trigger the rich heritage of the Arab world & galvanize the people from across the region & beyond, not just the UAE.

Third, while the communication needed to appeal to people of all age groups, the focus should be on the younger audience.

Launched with an emotional manifesto film that addressed the pride in every citizen of the Arab world, the campaign invited people to share their #FirstArabicCountdown to the space mission.

A ‘Lens of Hope’ that incorporated audio, video and keywords to perform the countdown was produced on Snapchat to further engage the youth audience, allowing people to give the count down the go-ahead.

The campaign extended across different media, including social and digital channels, as well as radio. The Countdown aired in prime locations and landmarks, on the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, as well as outdoor displays, buildings and cinemas across the Emirates.

A number of local, regional and global influencers, TV and radio anchors and celebrities joined the mission including David Luiz, Jacqueline Fernandez, Gary Vee, Jay Shetty and Ahmad Helmi, encouraging non-Arabic speakers to learn the Arabic countdown and inviting people to tune in to the big event.

1. Impressions: The campaign was able to garner 81million impressions, 30% more than targeted.

2. Views: The campaign video got over 22 million views on YouTube & other social platforms, a whopping 240% higher than estimated.

3. Engagement: The campaign got over 7.5 million engagements on social media with a 23% engagement rate, 92% higher than the benchmark.

In addition, we were able to achieve:

• 23 million unique reach across platforms

• Organically trending hashtag on Twitter

• Over 1.6 billion impressions on Twitter

• Organic participation from over 50 influencers with a collective follower base of more than 47 million, leading to more than 10 million views & 20 million impressions

Our campaign inspired millions of Arabs to see their own language in a new light and in doing so, we made the rest of the world see a different side of Arabic too – a good one!