Agency: dentsu international
Client: Malaria No More / Market: Global

In 2021, we were proud to partner with global NGO Malaria No More UK to launch ‘Draw The Line Against Malaria’. The star-studded creative campaign invites youth from across Africa and the globe to join the movement to end one of the world’s oldest and most deadly diseases. The global integrated campaign is the latest in a three-year pro bono partnership involving creative and media agencies from across the dentsu international network, aimed at ending a disease that kills a child every minute.

The campaign invites people to share the cinematic hero film, directed by acclaimed Nigerian music video director Meji Alabi, which showcases the captivating talent and energy emanating out of the African continent, including Dr Omotola J Ekeinde, Nigerian actress and philanthropist; Osas Ighodaro, Nigerian-American actress and producer; Saray Khumalo, South African explorer; Eliud Kipchoge, Olympic Gold-medallist and marathon world record- holder; Siya Kolisi, Captain of the Springboks, South Africa’s World Cup winning rugby team; and Sherrie Silver, award-winning Rwandan British choreographer.

At the heart of the campaign is a fresh new universal visual language made up of lines, symbols and patterns, the ‘Muundo’ created by acclaimed Nigerian artist, activist and human rights lawyer, Láolú Senbanjo. Each line will create a unique piece of art that is added to a globally crowdsourced mural. The artwork will be presented to world leaders as a collective message of solidarity powered by the people at the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases Summit in June 2022, on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda. The Summit is a milestone moment in the malaria fight and enabler of game-changing political decisions including delivering the commitment to halve malaria across the Commonwealth by 2023.

Over 100 dentsu volunteers from Amsterdam, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Geneva, London, Nairobi and New York worked in close collaboration with a collection of agencies, including the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the African Union Commission, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Impact Santé Afrique, Malaria No More UK, RBM Partnership to End Malaria and Speak Up Africa.

The creative and strategy was led by Isobar Amsterdam, with dentsu media agencies iProspect and Carat collaborating to drive media planning across multiple African markets including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia as well as target donor markets including the UK, USA, Japan and Australia. The digital platform was created by Isobar in collaboration with Firstborn.

Daniël Sytsma, Chief Design Officer, dentsu Creative, said: “We worked with creators and makers from across Africa to design this campaign as a movement, one that celebrates the creativity and positivity from a generation that is ready to claim their future. With the Muundo we want to provide young people with the tools and the language to deliver a powerful message.”