Translators Without Borders is a non-profit organisation that offers language and translation support for humanitarian emergencies. With the global pandemic further highlighting the language barrier that exists for some of the world’s poorest regions, making health advice accessible for as many languages as possible is an ongoing battle.
That’s why TBWA\Dublin is launching a new campaign to help Translators Without Borders raise some much needed funding. The creative consists of a series of short videos and static posts for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The idea plays off words that share the same spelling across two different languages (homophones) and then shows how the word vastly differs in meaning through the use of bright and engaging illustrations. This sets up the campaign message to show viewers that “With Covid-19, accurate translations can mean life or death”.
Paul Arthurs, Senior Art Director at TBWA Dublin says:
“Developing this campaign for TWB using language translation itself to communicate, has created a powerful and idiosyncratic campaign. Starting with the initial idea of homophones and working through dozens of translations proved to us that we had the ability to communicate our vital information clearly yet playfully. Likewise we chose a bright, playful look and feel as a Trojan horse for our important message giving stand out and appeal.”
Amy Tumelty, Social Media & Content Specialist at TBWA Dublin says:
“We know that audiences are feeling over-whelmed with the volume of Covid-19 communications they’re seeing right now. That’s why it was important for us to create content that could break through this, and raise some much needed funding for Translators Without Borders. With such eye-catching creative, It was imperative to back this creative up with strategic decisions like employing highly targeted audiences, applying dynamic creative and using a variety of diverse formats.”
Getting the campaign off the ground would not have been possible without the generosity and time of some key contributors. Working with the creative concept, the charming videos were expertly animated by Daniel Coss, while the fun illustrations were created with help from Watermark. Designed to maximise global reach, the social strategy has been massively extended thanks to support from both Facebook and Twitter.
Sharda Sekaran, Head of Fundraising and Communications, Translators without Borders:
“COVID-19 requires a global response that speaks to people in their own languages and gives them credible information that they can understand. Wired Magazine called COVID-19 ‘History’s Biggest Translation Challenge.’ We are grateful to TBWA for creating a clear and engaging campaign to raise awareness about this issue and to help Translators without Borders raise much-needed funds to meet the need for multilingual health information.”
To support Translators Without Borders global response to the crisis, head to https://translatorswithoutborders.org/covid-19
CREDITS:
TBWA\Dublin
CEO, Deirdre Waldron
Senior Strategist, Shane Kelly
Senior Art Director, Paul Arthurs
Copywriter, Martin Corcoran
Social Media & Content Specialist, Amy Tumelty
Senior Account Manager, Aoife McCarthy
Video Editor, Rupert Morris
Translators Without Borders
Head of Fundraising and Communications, Sharda Sekaran
Chief Technology Officer, Eric Paquin
Communications Senior Officer, Krissy Welle
Development Senior Officer, Rosie Marteau
Communications Officer, Danielle Moore
Post Production
Animator, Daniel Coss
Watermark Creative
Twitter
Global Public Policy Strategy, Sara Eqozi
Client Account Manager, Megan Templeton
Facebook
Account Manager, Adrian Ma
