Blossom for

GPE
World Bank Group

A strong gesture can change the world.

How Blossom created and launched Raise Your Hand, the GPE funding campaign for transforming education.

A raised hand can mean so many different things. It can mean you are in class, you want to be seen, or you are part of a movement. A raised hand means "I'm here". Thanks to Blossom, a raised hand has also become an invitation to cooperate in order to support and transform education around the world.

GPE (Global Partnership for Education), a World Bank international organization that works to improve education systems in developing countries, asked Blossom to create a global campaign to mobilize the Earth's leaders and raise 5 billion dollars, marking the start of an incredible journey. The dawn of a movement that has carried the GPE message to new levels.

The first steps.
An ambitious plan for ambitious goals.

During the first phase of the project, defining how to achieve expected goals was crucial: funding, positioning, awareness, advocacy and conversion. In order to do so, Blossom developed a global map of stakeholders, audience analysis, and a Global Campaign Plan.

World leaders were the primary target; it was important to share the message that education is one of the most important drivers of progress, and how by funding it, they could make a difference in global development.

At the same time it was also important to reassure them about how funding education, in addition to being the choice of many governments, is also a topic close to the heart of groups, movements and influential people. So the campaign also needed to speak to the general public, raising awareness on what GPE does and nurturing extensive involvement.

Raise Your Hand, the creative concept.

How can the general public of the western world be brought closer to an issue like the education crisis in developing countries, which at first glance appears to be very distant?

By recounting it on an emotional level, telling real stories of bravery and determination,
building a sense of identification in order to convey a universal story,
with a strong concept aiming straight for the heart, one that boils down to a simple and repeatable gesture
. So this is how Raise Your Hand came about, the creative concept
for the campaign.

The campaign launch featured a video created and filmed by Blossom, with a strong emotional tone. Indeed the aim was to move viewers by symbolically conveying the concept: giving a girl the chance to raise her hand is such a strong gesture that it can change the world.
Along with the lives of many children and entire communities.

Raising awareness on what GPE means more than just winning people over with the power of emotions. It is also about convincing them with the clarity of facts. We achieved this with the second video of the campaign. A video with a more informative approach, conveying the urgency of funding the education system to the general public and above all, world leaders.

Filmed in Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire, and narrated by former footballer Didier Drogba, the video shows the challenges facing developing countries in education, and how they are overcoming them thanks to joint actions of the GPE and national education ministry. Stopping an entire generation from losing its future.

The stories of four Kenyans whose lives have changed thanks to these actions are featured in series of episodes, as part of a virtual tour, so that funders can see the impact of their donations on people's lives, with their own eyes.

In this documentary-style short film, the four characters describe how their lives took a turn for the better thanks to a new approach towards education.

Raise Your Hand

Youssou N'Dour, Teni, Reekado Banks

In order to be sure to reach out to a mainstream audience and spread the message far and wide, we also used the most powerful and engaging means of communication ever: music. Blossom created a track, "Raise Your Hand", produced with Youssou N'Dour and the afro pop stars Reekado Banks, Teni the Entertainer and Nomcebo Zikode (the voice of the song “Jerusalema”), and performed with the London Community Gospel Choir.

A movement was born.
The campaign strategy.

If a message isn't listened to, then it fails in its purpose, no matter how strong it is. This is why we made sure that Raise Your Hand was heard by as many people as possible, through an outreach campaign rolled out in both traditional and digital media outlets, with static and animated contents, organic and paid sharing.

The online strategy focused on a digital tool with which users were invited to create "the longest ever arm", in an engaging challenge on social media.

The next step was to involve celebrities with a large social media following. We asked them to publish contents in which they raised their hands and encouraged their followers to do the same. Dozens of decision makers, well-known political figures (including Michelle Obama) and influencers raised their hands, and their contents were viewed by millions of users.

The digital campaign achieved remarkable results, generating over 3 million video viewings, over 700 thousand social media engagements, over 31 million impressions, reaching out to over 13 million people. Impressive figures to say the least, proof of how Raise Your Hand succeeded in reaching out to a vast audience. And in raising the popularity of the debate on education, by expanding it from beyond the realm of governments and development, and presenting it to the rest of society.

With the traditional media campaign, we opted for the use of an effective story-telling, to support and explain the need for funding in education and relative returns on investment. We worked with GPE communications teams from different countries to build messages and contents that were interesting for national agendas, and to generate value with the media.

Time to act.
The Global Education Summit

Following on from the videos, music, celebrities and social media mobilization, the time for action had come.

The Global Education Summit was held in London on 28th and 29th July 2021, where the world's leaders (above all, Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which co-hosted the event with Kenya), committed to supporting the work of GPE over the next 5 years, in order to transform the education systems of 90 countries.

The global conference was the culmination of the Raise Your Hand campaign, and the high point of a partnership with Blossom, in which we were a reliable partner, accompanying GPE every step along this project capable of creating global change.

The Summit ended with the achievement of fundraising targets. Thanks to these investments, the lives of children, teachers, educators and entire countries will change.
The world will change, thanks to a simple, yet strong gesture.

Our success is your success. From the new brand identity to the campaign concept, Summit branding, the beautiful videos and the Raise Your Hand track, Blossom was behind GPE every step of the way along its pathway to success.

Without you, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Breanna Ridsdel,
Head of Communications di GPE