Brick-by-brick and nail-by-nail, over a million Indian subcontinental blue-collar workers build the dreams of Dubai, while silently holding their own dreams for their children's education.

SmartLife, an organization for UAE's blue collar workers, wanted to help.

We needed to create an idea that would be contagious, because being a non-profit organization, the budgets were negligible. Hence, the idea needed to be remarkable enough to get people talking about it and attractive enough to draw people to it, triggering participation and active engagement. An effective usage of earned media and PR were crucial for the idea to be successful.

So, we created SAPNA ("Dream" in Hindi and Urdu languages) - a canvas that was installed on a wall of dreams on a prominent street in Dubai during the holiday shopping season. People were invited to buy the very nails the workers hammer everyday, for 10 AED (~$2.7) each, and do a little labour on their part by hammering the nails into the wall. When complete, the wall showed a heart-warming image of a graduation hat being gifted to a child, symbolizing the fulfillment of their simple dreams.

A trending hashtag (#sapnadubai), unexpected TV, Print, Radio and worldwide online coverage, an earned (free) media value of over $730,000 and rising - all of these results have led to the SAPNA Wall's growing popularity.

SAPNA has thus far given 40 blue-collar workers’ children a first-class education up to graduation; something their fathers had only dreamt about. SAPNA has also been invited to 7 other countries.

Being a non-profit organization, the media strategy and budget was focused on earned and free media vs. bought media.

And we did it all at $0 media cost.

1) A Facebook event invited everyone in UAE.

2) Emotional digital films shared the workers' stories. We seeded this film to SmartLife's partners.

3) We set up the wall on a very popular street in Dubai, during a festive season that attracts huge crowds. Location cost = pro bono.

4) #sapnadubai was seeded as a hashtag with key influencers.

5) And as the nails continued to fill up the wall, SAPNA became more famous, unexpectedly featuring on leading local Radio (Virgin Radio, Radio Mirchi), Print (Khaleej Times' City Times), online and TV (Dubai One) channels, that attracted more audiences.

Nail by nail, minute by minute the image came to life symbolizing the fulfillment of the workers dreams for their children's education.

For an absolute $0 cost (production, location, media, volunteers - pro bono), the SAPNA wall became the first crowd-sourced nail art piece for charity, attracting over 55 different nationalities, and popular Arab celebrities and influencers.

People's shared photographs which gave us over a 250,000 free social ads combined with the unexpected coverage across TV, Print and Radio, have generated a worldwide earned (free) media value of over $730,000 and rising.

SAPNA has thus far given 40 blue-collar workers’ children a first-class education upto graduation; something their fathers had only dreamt about. SAPNA has also been invited to 7 other countries.