Sightsavers India, #GiftOfSight records 2.1 million views and 62 million impressions within a week of launch
#GiftOfSight, a step by Sightsavers and WATConsult, records 2.1 million views and 62 Mn Impressions within a week of launch
India is home to 8 million blind people which is approximately one-fourth of the world’s blind population. While 75 per cent of this blindness is preventable and could have been avoided, awareness around eye health and sensitization around eye donations becomes imperative.
Sightsavers India, a leading global development organization working in over 30 countries to combat avoidable blindness and promote equal opportunities for visually impaired, decided to join hands with WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, to leverage the biggest festival of lights in India.
Launched on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, the aim of the campaign was not only to reach out to the mass Indian audience and make them see the festival through the eyes of the visually-impaired but also to emphasize on the importance of eye donations.
The agency maximized various social media platforms to the core, ensuring that the message is perceived and received by as many as possible. Released during Diwali, the video garnered 2.1 Million views in only two days along with some well-known personalities like Bollywood actors Kabir Bedi and Aparshakti Khurana, Padmashri award-winning filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda and noted photographer Amit Pasricha creating a buzz about it on their social media pages.
Within a few days of launch, on Twitter, around 6102 tweets, 62 Mn Impressions, and 2.12 Mn reach were recorded while on Facebook the campaign garnered 4,100,557 reaches, 5,621,392 impressions, and 2.1 million views. Content Marketing agency Social Catalyzers came on board as ‘Supporting Partners’ for the campaign.
RN Mohanty, CEO, Sightsavers India said, “The #GiftOfSight campaign is a powerful digital communication medium to draw attention towards the often ignored humane, social and economic cause of preventing avoidable blindness. Over 75 percent of blindness is preventable which is primarily caused due to factors like cataract and refractive errors. The #GiftOfSight video adequately highlights how one of the biggest festivals in India—Diwali— ‘LOOKS’ like to a visually impaired person. We seek to drown the noise with this campaign and make Diwali truly a festival of light for many millions in the country.”
Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult said, “#GiftOfSight is an urge to people to gift a life. With growing need of desired corneas and lack of awareness about eye health, #GiftOfSight is a step to raise adequate awareness via a simple video that showcased how a festival of Diwali is for the visually impaired.”
#GiftOfSight is a disruptive black video that portrays the festival from a visually-impaired person’s perspective with a concoction of all kinds of sounds of noise and celebration that sums up Diwali for a blind person. The video urges the viewers to donate towards preventing blindness so that someday someone will be able to experience the festivities from their own eyes.
Comparing simple joys of witnessing color, celebrations, fireworks, and memories to what they would look like to blind people, the campaign focused on how giving a #GiftOfSight this year could bring light to someone’s Diwali.