The Situation

The red line usually only appears under your name when typing at your computer. When it comes to emailing/printing your writing the line does not appear. This makes the discrimination of the red line an intensely private affair.

The Problem

How do we take a digital offense that happens privately and bring it to life in a public way that simply could not be ignored.

The Solution

We partner with the largest national newspaper in South Africa in a media first. Each and every name that would get the red line on the computer screen received the same treatment in the newspaper.

From the cover to the inside spread readers of the paper saw red and just as they were about to lose it they were met with a full page add that explained the campaign and drove them to add their name to the list.

The campaign started with the #rightmyname website and a single video posted to Youtube and Social media. On both the video and the website the call-to-action was single-minded: Add your name to the list.

The website drove customers to share their participation in the campaign to social platforms. In this way customers themselves drove their friends to participate.

In the build-up to Human Rights Day 2018 engagement with influencers took centre stage with a customized desk drop and controversial newspaper advert encouraging conversation.

On Human Rights Day the list was released for download, people could update their dictionaries and remove the red line from under their name for good.

All of this happened over a three month period from 16 January to 21 March 2018 and thanks to its success in SA is being rolled out by Nando’s throughout their global network.

• 70 000+ unique names

• 53 million impressions (91% consumer generated)

• R 5.4 mil in PR

• 23% spike in positive brand sentiment generated by the campaign

The campaign used social, digital and print based media to build a database of South African names that when downloaded removed spellcheck’s red line from under their name.

Social media was central to recruiting customers to add their names and the digital elements of the campaign gave context to what #rightmyname is all about.

The print side of the campaign called both for submissions to the database and drove campaign awareness, particularly with the media debate it ignited.

Nando’s targets a middle to affluent audience in South Africa, who want their voices to be heard, especially when it comes to topical issues.

The campaign targeted social media influencers who aren’t afraid to share their voice on key issues as well as fans of the brand to spread the message.

Because of the newsworthy nature of the idea Nando’s ran a full page ad in the country’s leading newspaper, the Sunday Times, to drive further engagement. The campaign's topical nature took the idea further and in a media first used their editorial content to drive home the message of #rightmyname by underlining all the African names in the first two pages of the newspaper.

A mix of a print news title and targeted social media activity led to 53 million impressions and 70,000 names being submitted over a short two month campaign period with a budget of R160 000.

Nando’s crossed a line, to get rid of the red line.

Burning issue:

Every day, South Africans with non-English names,

are told by spellcheck that their African names are a mistake.

Nando’s wanted to right this wrong.

Solution:

#rightmyname was launched.

A campaign that encouraged people to add their name to an online database.

When downloaded the list corrected their dictionary.

In a brave media first, the nation’s largest newspaper allowed Nando’s to underline all African names in the editorial on their cover and inside spread, sparking a national, media ethics debate.

Objective:

The ultimate objective of the campaign was to generate a database of names that companies and individuals could download, and a total of 70,000 names were submitted by the public.