Church reaches out to 6,000 underpriviledged workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic affected livelihoods globally. Most of the UAE workforce was adversely affected by the global health crisis leaving thousands helpless and sometimes with no food to eat.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church launched a humanitarian initiative to aid scores of expats, families, and underprivileged workers affected by the Pandemic by providing meals.
Matrix PR volunteered to donate our time and resources to create awareness in a bid to rally other like-minded organizations and well-wishers to come out and help these workers during the difficult period.
To create awareness for the initiative titled "Meals for Grace" initiated by the St. Mary’s Cathoilic Church
To attract volunteers and sponsors to support the campaign
To identify families and individuals who were in need
Movement restrictions due to the curfews and rising number of COVID cases
Rising number of COVID cases
Huge number of people reaching out asking for support
We spoke to volunteers, the organizers, and sponsors to get an idea of the kinds of stories that would be possible.
We visited one of the restuarants and saw first hand the food preparation process.
Our research showed that due to the pandemic and lock-down the average hours spent online and video consumption of content was at an all time high.
The agency created three key messages to share with the media:
#MealsforGrace campaign, human stories, and the Good Samaritans.
The Agency pitched multiple angles to leading publications and tapped into it extensive media relations to garner maximum exposure.
To ensure that the news reached as many people as possible, the agency also pitched for visual stories including social media accounts of leading publications and online news portals.
The strategy was based on research that showed that the average time spent online had substantially increased. This was particularly true of video content.
Three Key Messages
Multiple Story Hooks
Focus on Video and Online Content
Multiple journalists covering different beats from the same publication were targeted with tailor-made story hooks relevant to their niche.
The Agency collaborated with a restaurant to create a video story for a leading national daily including behind-the-scenes access right up to the distribution of the food parcels.
At a time of generally negative news due to the Pandemic, the Agency focused on the positive stories, the human angle, and the number of people impacted by the initiative.
Over 10 tier 1 and key online publications featured the 6,000 meals story
The widespread coverage led to more volunteers coming forward to offer their services
The National sent their video team and created a video story that was shared on their social media platform
The various angles received excellent coverage from the Arabic media
Creating awareness for a regional pioneer
Creating a platform that brought together investors, industry players, investment advisors and the media
Helping the company act as a trading bridge between Japan and the UAE
