Malaria is responsible for 33% of all pediatric deaths in Ghana[1]. The mosquitos that carry this deadly disease are especially active in homes at dusk and dawn. Despite the threat, Ghanaians are wary of trying new products and often choose old methods over innovation. Raid, a brand Ghanaians know and trust for effective pest control, created a solution that was both effective and easier to use than other methods. Raid Day and Night is a simple poster that you place on the wall and spray 3 times daily. It protects the home for up to 24 hours and is much easier to use than other solutions. Raid Day and Night is a brilliant product innovation but it’s also a completely different way to protect from mosquitos. We needed to find a way to get this new product into homes to protect families, despite a cultural aversion to the unfamiliar.

[1]https://www.beyondthenets.org/malaria-facts/

We transformed the functional and instructive yet unfamiliar Raid Day and Night poster into The Life Saving Portrait. Raid’s Life Saving Portrait is a personalized, professionally shot multigenerational family portrait. It is individualized for mothers in a country where this professional family portrait may be the only one they ever have to cherish. By giving this poster an emotional home in a mother’s heart, Raid created a vital place for it in her house. The reimagined posters were printed with 3 family portraits — representing the 3 times they spray the poster, making the instructions unforgettable. The magic of this idea is that by personalizing these posters with three photos, the brand created a visual representation that doesn’t just look lovely on the wall, it invites our mothers to protect the lives of every face they see on it every day.

Ghanaian Moms deal with the threat of malaria every day. The context she lives in actually creates a heightened need for trustworthy protection of her family and this can make her skeptical of new products claiming to solve the problem.

Explaining how the product works in order to communicate its effectiveness would likely be ignored. Or worse, be misunderstood or invite cynicism. Our strategy: make the poster a reminder of who she needed to protect instead of the how. By making the poster feature the most important people in her life in a unique way — her family — we ensured the Raid Life Saving Portrait found its way into her home and her walls. By making it a one of a kind interactive portrait, Raid would turn the act of spraying it three times daily into a daily ritual of protection.

We sent a world-renowned West African photographer to villages near Accra. He set up his camera in busy markets, churches and thoroughfares, taking portraits of Ghanaian families. Hundreds of families showed up to get their portraits taken. On site, we printed gorgeous family portraits on Raid Day and Night posters and distributed spray so Ghanaians could take them home and start protecting their families immediately.

Along the way, we captured the stories of multiple parents who described the relief they felt upon seeing their family’s faces on the poster every day, knowing they had the best protection. These stories were shared through local influencers to spread the word about the new type of mosquito protection.

Hundreds visited the events to receive their custom portraits and the line to participate never dissipated. We saw families of all shapes and sizes from single mothers with their children to grandparents with grandkids to adult siblings — one portrait featured four brothers in their 60s. But it wasn’t limited to the events; word spread online through local influencers like Vivian Jill (790k followers) and average moms alike. Most importantly, we opened minds to a new, superior mosquito protection that could save countless lives.