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Elegance Stars Inspiring creativity through social responsibility |
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Friday, 15 May 2009 |
When you walk into the factory of any major corporation, you would expect to be greeted by a company hall-of-fame - walls plastered with product logos, company awards, and employee honors. However, anyone walking into Elegance Confectionary Company will find something different. Of course, the company has a wall of fame – but they have exchanged awards for drawings, gold and silver print for crayon: orange, red, green, and blue, and company logos for stickers. The sense you get once you enter the company is a lively world of creativity, blasting colors and big ideas – all drawn by local children.
The drawings were done by thousands of children who participated in a 4-month drawing campaign organised by Elegance President and co-owner, Imad Kalioundji, and Stars, a division of Elegance Confectionery.
Blending community building and smart marketing, Kalioundji and team worked to raise awareness for Stars products across the country by spreading the joy of drawing and instilling values of creativity, family, and fun into a campaign that has been turning heads and redefining the relationship between social responsibility and business.
The inspiration for the campaign traces back to the roots of Stars company, which was founded by the Kalioundji in 2005. At the core of the brand is a commitment to appealing to people of all ages – anywhere, any time, likewise reflected by brand's slogan, ‘for all times.’ In search of a way to transform these values into a tangible campaign, Kalioundji found that drawing was a perfect tool. "Drawing is something that everyone can do by nature… kids, adults, everyone likes to draw."
After successfully establishing Stars in the market, Kalioundji began looking for a way to take his company to the next level by reaching out to a part of the population often ignored by advertising - kids. "We wanted to do a campaign for the product first, but we wanted to relate this to kids, and we didn't want to relate it to something that didn't have a cause. Drawing; nobody is taking that cause." With these two objectives in mind, the Stars coloring book was born. "The idea really is to have something that let's them interact… every kid likes to draw. Whenever you have a kid around and you don't know what to do with him because all he wants to do is play and mess around, the first thing you do is give him a paper and a pencil… and then they like sweets… so put the two together and they make magic."
Between October 2008 and January 2009, Stars produced, printed, and distributed 50,000 coloring books to children in 27 local schools. The books, which include pages for kids to fill in and create their own drawings employing images of stars cookies, were given to children around nine or ten, along with some simple coloring supplies. They were told that if they drew in them and returned them to their teachers, they would be given a small prize.
In January, Kalioundji and his partners began returning to schools to collect the books. The response was overwhelming. Expecting only a small return, they were thrilled to receive nearly 9,000 books. "The first day when we started getting back the coloring books, I said 'okay, put it in my office' and then after four days you could see my office filled with drawings and that's when I felt there was really something there – you're really engaging kids. It's not a game any more, you know, it's a responsibility. They are telling us we want to communicate – we want to keep drawing and we said 'okay, we need to keep going.'"
Answering their calls, Kalioundji expanded the campaign to the general public by introducing a traveling campaign that consisted of a truck fully equipped with art supplies, face paint, and plenty of cookies. The truck visited areas known to attract children of a variety of ages, and demographics in Aleppo, Damascus, Lattakia, and Homs. In some cases the stops were planned at others they were spontaneous when the team spotted a concentration of children. Again, Kalioundji and his partners were floored by the response. Children and their families turned out rain or shine, morning or evening to eat, enjoy, and simply create.
"It's really shocking because you see how many drawings that are coming that are really nice! Some of the kids were doing them by themselves. Some of them, I know, were helped by their brothers, sisters, or even their mothers. It's fine, because you are engaging the whole family in this exercise of drawing. And drawing is something healthy – it's something nice."
Having already spread its name, many companies might have packed their bags and called it a day – but not Kalioundji. "If I had launched this campaign and stopped, it would have been like any other campaign that anyone else had done." Instead, he took care to deliver on his promises, returning to schools to deliver prizes to participants and mailing them to others. He individually sorted through the drawings and selected 200 winners and 5 top prize winners who demonstrated particularly outstanding creativity and talent in their designs.
And being different has paid – even a month after the end of the campaign, people are still talking about the event and Elegance has earned a name that children and adults alike recognize as both reliable and invested in their interests. "When we returned to the schools to announce the winners, we walked into the school, the kids started chanting 'Elegance is here, Elegance has results,' and that was really special, and that's because they didn't expect us to do anything. Usually you say 'people don't answer, they don't call back' – they do!"
Maintaining his commitment to following through, the campaign culminated in a party held in honor of the 200 winners and 5 top-prize winners, which was held on February 21 at the Venezia Restaurant in Aleppo. The event offered a chance for winners to relax with their families and celebrate their achievements. All winners were awarded with professional drawing supplies and the top prize winners, including Joseph Thomasiyen, Mohammad Shahben, Mirai Lena Itmajah, Sedrah el-Ahmar, and Sandy Khatargy, will be given a course in drawing. Kids and their families enjoyed a carnival-themed evening of games, performances and drinks. "The theme is fun – a carnival. Just come here and have fun with us. We want everyone to walk through the door and say we had fun – we are happy, we are special, and we are happy that we drew for Elegance."
Reflecting on the campaign, Kalioundji adds that it has transformed his conception of the relationship of business and social responsibility. For him, the campaign has made it clear that the two are not contradictory objectives, but produce impressive marketing results as a pair. "People understand social responsibility as, okay, they have to spend money on being socially responsible, but this is not the point. You can be socially responsible by simply operating in a socially responsible way. You don't need to have a budget for being socially responsible. It's pushing kids to do something good and at the same time people are buying more of the product in the stores."
Hiding the details behind a broad smile, Imad promises that this is not the end for drawing at Stars. "This has changed the way we do business. We have to keep going." Until then, the hundreds of pictures lining the Elegance's walls will serve as an ample reminder of what comes when marketing stops being just about the product and starts serving the community.
www.elegancesyria.com
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