The Back to School Season is the Ministry of Education’s New Year. It’s the one time of year that the public gives us their ears but the challenge is in what to say to an audience that is tired of being told how exciting this time of year is.

Instead, we decided to focus on our vision & mission. We are building the youth of today for a better tomorrow for the country. We see our role as motivating our students, this country’s future, to rise to occasion and to thrive no matter the situation, even if it is just waking up early to go back to school. So how can we motivate our community to rise to the occasion?

Objectives:

- Engage with students on a real level

- Build positive momentum around the season

- Create buzz and excitement about going back to school

Easier said than done.

Today’s youth are very switched on. They’ve seen it all, the whole world is available at their fingertips and the standard joy-filled back-to-school campaigns are just not cutting it anymore. Actually, there’s an entire suite of videos dedicated to mocking back-to-school campaigns in the region. We needed to flip the script. We needed to let them know that we hear them, that we know this time of year is rough for them and everyone else included but we believe they are up for the challenge and we salute them for showing up with “Kafu” – an Emirati word that translates to “Bravo!” – became our rallying cry to encourage every single person connected to the school system - teachers, staff, students, parents and children of determination. It made the ‘welcome back’ message personal and united the school community in purpose.

Emiratis make up only 10% of the population in the UAE. They’re constantly exposed to Western-style messaging aimed at the expat population. Being a close-knit community, they appreciate content that addresses them individually. As the Ministry of Education, our primary audience were students and staff in public schools, but we wanted to address parents as well. To counter reluctance and change attitudes, we needed a positive message with an Emirati touch. We launched “#Kafu to the ____” and individually celebrated the different audiences. This flexible messaging helped the campaign address varied topics: The new school year, achievement, learning, friendship, students of determination innovation, Smart Learning tools, light backpack education, books recycling, facilities inspection, health and safety standards, etc. For faster deployment across 7 emirates, for the first time we created a comprehensive digital implementation toolkit for 600+ schools that allowed the schools to make the campaign their own.

The Emirati School community was pleasantly surprised with the Ministry of Education’s inspiring message. With colourful executions, #Kafu disrupted typical Back-to-School campaigns. The content executions had a common thread: By Emiratis, For Emiratis.

Our launch video starred the Minister of State for Public Education, HE Jameela Salem Al Muhairi. We then engaged local influencers whose personas amplified our messaging.

Diala Ali (437k followers) - Safety and Health

Ali Al Blushi (144k followers) – Light backpack initiative

Mahra Al Shehi (172k followers) – Spot the #Kafu Bus

We launched Chat Stickers on Telegram, highly used by Emiratis, to spread our positive message.

We took over social media with our ‘Spot the Bus’ competition.

Our school interviews showed the campaign reaction and the genuinely positive attitude that people experienced.

“#Kafu to the ____” motivated everyone to be more creative, engaged and successful.

The positive message of #Kafu managed to change the community’s perspective on the dreaded ‘first day of school’. The campaign had a larger-than-expected impact, considering the small size of our Primary Audience: UAE Public Schools with 153,000 students, supported by 26,000 teachers, administrators and technicians.

Through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we reached 2.6M users in the close-knit Emirati community with 1.6M engagements in just 30 days.

Instagram: 805K with 760K engagements

Facebook: 1.8M with 760K engagements

Twitter: 31K with 12K engagements

We also featured in 28 Online Publications: Sharjah24.ae, Tellerreport, Abu Dhabi News, Emarat Al Youm, Gulf News, Khaleej Times, WAM, Ahlan Live, Teach Middle East, 24.ae, Dubai City Guide, Fujairah News, UAE News (AR), Al Ain, Ara Al Mustaqbal