ADA recognises COVID-19 frontliners with ‘Diriya’ campaign
View(s):ADA Sri Lanka, at a time when healthcare workers are rightly being celebrated as national heroes, had a slightly different take on how Sri Lankans should honour the frontline workers.
Donation handed over to CEBH Mulleriyawa on June 12
The integrated digital marketing company – having raised a private donation of Rs.0.5 million via employee contributions – adopted an innovative approach to make the most impact by engaging Sri Lankan youth through their most consumed content medium – videos, the organisation said in a media release.
“As a team we were determined to support the healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19 in our own capacity. We established an internal fund under ADAFORGOOD that had very soon amassed Rs.0.5 million,” noted Rozy Laxana, Managing Director of ADA Sri Lanka. “We simply wanted to ensure this donation created the impact it was intended to. We wanted to do what we do best – connect with people across multiple digital platforms – so that we could make this donation more meaningful, collaborative, and highly impactful.”
Upon careful consideration and evaluation, ADA selected the Colombo East Base Hospital (CEBH) Mulleriyawa for the donation; the hospital is one of the six main hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka, including most of the patients diagnosed within the Navy cluster. The hospital reported its rapidly increasing need for a range of medical supplies including facemasks, gloves and goggles – basic personal protective equipment (PPE) that are essential for the safety of all first responders during the pandemic.
“We know the power and reach of digital platforms, and as a leader in our field, we took the responsibility of spreading a message of encouragement and empowerment to our frontliners,” explained Sanjini Munaweera, Director – Client Leadership at ADA Sri Lanka. “We brought in our digital, data and creative experts together to identify how to best utilize these online platforms that had become the most consumed medium during the pandemic. That’s where our message had to be.”
ADA’s insights showed that online videos and music streaming led in terms of media consumption. Adding the company’s unrivalled data and advanced analytics expertise to this equation, ADA launched ‘DIRIYA’, a musical tribute to frontline heroes. Lyrics to the song, written by Malini Liyanage and Lucky Lakmina, were brought to life by talented young artists Hirushi Jayasena, Piyath Rajapakse and Tehani Imara. The music video production was carried out in collaboration with Dice Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd, with the support of Pasan Liyanage of Redfox Productions.
Next came the engagement. ADA invited Sri Lankans to do their own rendition of the song and upload it on their channels tagging #ADAFORGOOD. In return, ADA pledged to donate Rs. 5,000 of its private fund under the participants name. In a matter of days, the song surpassed 100 cover renditions, equaling the Rs.0.5 million pledge by the company. The covers were uploaded across YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, resulting in over 500K+ campaign views and counting. Close to 30 more young artists supported the campaign alongside the ADA team members.