Cannes Lions

The Wider Web

IMPACT BBDO, Dubai / ETISALAT / 2021

Awards:

1 Shortlisted Cannes Lions
Presentation Image
MP3 Original Language
Supporting Content

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Background

Etisalat is a brand that stands for togetherness, and as an internet brand, we saw that while the internet is a great place for all, it can be difficult for others. The internet is stimulating – full of skip ads, pop-ups, auto-plays and TikToks. However, when it comes to people on the autism spectrum, this dynamism can become a problem. One of the common symptoms of autism is meltdowns, caused by sensory overload – an over stimulation of the five senses.

Accordingly, our brief was simple, as a brand that believes in inclusivity, how do we make a more accessible internet for people on the autism spectrum?

Idea

To help foster a more inclusive web, we created the Etisalat Wider Web extension, a browser extension to help people on the spectrum navigate websites. The extension allows for a global redesign of the web experience by reshaping and simplifying how information is presented on the websites.

An extension available on all major browsers, that realigns webpages to be more autistic friendly.

Strategy

Before starting anything, our first step was to understand that without an insider’s perspective, it would be impossible to achieve our objectives. Our project started with in-depth research where we spoke with psychologists and experts to understand the pain points that autistic people face when surfing the internet.

From this research, we were able to identify the needed tweaks to be done to web pages, which can make them more accessible. The extension would need to be both simple to use and configurable to match the diverse range of neurodivergent people it is made for.

Execution

Through our research, we determined that there were 6 main pain points for neurodivergent people browsing the web

- Advertisements

- The amount of information on the screen

- The clash of colors

- The variations and difficulty in reading font types,

- The visually disruptive nature of some images

- Loud videos with auto play

We built our extension to help with all these issues, muting videos, unifying colors & fonts and blocking all forms of advertisements – yes even our own.

The open-source extension works on any language & is configurable to allow users to pick their preference in color, page width and font size, and is available for all the major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Edge & Safari.

We then tested our extension with different people on the spectrum to gauge their reactions and make improvements.

Outcome

During the launch, the extension was officially endorsed by the government receiving the approval of the autistic population in the UAE. The extension is currently going through its early adoption phase having been widely shared within the psychology community, already being downloaded in over 15 countries, and increasing unique site visits to our Etisalat website 20% during the week after launch.

As for the campaign, after less a month of launch, it had reached 1,989,651,742 impressions, getting featured on TV channels, radio stations and newspaper including BBC, CNN, Khaleeji Times, Virgin Radio & others. This created not only created connection with our brand & extension, but also for the cause that is rarely highlighted in the Middle East.

Similar Campaigns

12 items

Shortlisted Spikes Asia
It Starts With Yes

SPECIAL, Auckland

It Starts With Yes

2021, OPTUS

(opens in a new tab)