The goal of the ‘Hello Mama’ project was to galvanize public audiences for World Refugee Day in a way that built deep empathy and raised awareness through immersion. Through innovative and interactive storytelling, we wanted to lay out a realistic refugee journey and demonstrate the impossible choices they must face at every turn. Leveraging WhatsApp polls, we sought to put our audience of nearly one million followers in the driver seat. In a throwback to choose-your-own-adventure activations, we wanted followers to vote on what the next steps in the fictionalized refugee’s journey would be. We wanted to create meaningful engagement and reveal how solidarity saves lives.
The goal was to make it hyper-personalized through voicenotes, where the character’s voice comes through over airpods and mobile phone speakers. We would add photos and video to simulate the full experience as a refugee might relay in their messaging app. Finally, authenticity is not just key for excellent social media, but also an essential goal for the ethical storytelling that UNHCR is committed to. We consulted refugees with lived experience of similar journeys. In summary, our objectives included packing an empathetic punch in an innovative format that seems unique while also imitating the everyday use case for WhatsApp.
From the early days of brainstorming for World Refugee Day content, we wanted something that would help to remind online audiences that solidarity was under threat. In a humanitarian setting where funding cuts are putting lives at risk, we wanted a project that would lead to meaningful engagement where followers were put in the shoes of the refugees we regularly ask them to support. We settled on a suite of creative ideas headlined by something called ‘Hello Mama’. Through storyboarding and consultation, we devised a story that was emblematic of a refugee’s journey from initial attack, fear and flight to finding safety, security and hope in a new community.
Consultation was built into every stage of the process. We consulted contacts at Meta to ensure that we were leveraging best practices for the platform before we built something special. We consulted refugees to make sure the tone and the steps were something that accurately reflected their struggles and followed their decision-making.
Next came the full scripting of the voicenotes. We created these in a way that could be a voicenote a young woman might actually send to her mother with everyday elements that were relatable – going to the market, watching a little brother, fun jovial conversation. We used the steps in the journey to speak about key messages that are important to the refugee cause like delivering aid and difficult choices between food and medicine. Finally, we wanted to paint the full picture that the journey can end in hope. Life for refugees is often difficult, but finding safety, shelter and education is possible.
Once we had the plan crafted and the full narrative in shape, we had an additional in-depth consultation with a refugee where we tweaked various elements of the product. We wanted to be sure that every small “I wouldn’t have done that” or “that’s not how that would go” was taken into account and adjusted to be as true to experience as possible.
In terms of delivery, we found ways that expanded the project. A product intended for WhatsApp ended up being tailored for Instagram Broadcast channels and Threads in ways that stayed true to the essence of the project while opening the journey up to a wider audience. We checked in daily from our intentional “cold drop” to how word was spreading and engagement was being received. We made small adjustments to add further context and adjust multimedia based on overall social performance. This stocktaking continued through until the final delivery of the product where we cross-promoted the full audience-influenced version of the story. This gave the project new life as those who didn’t participate along the way could still consume the full journey, and social signals suggest that many looked back at the previous day’s votes to dive deeper into the story’s possibilities.
‘Hello Mama’ ran for 5 days primarily on WhatsApp, but with expansion to Instagram Broadcast Channels and Threads, generating nearly 11,000 poll responses. That engagement was seven times our average post engagement for five posts. Unique, platform-specific storylines drove immersive experiences, and engagement grew daily with 11.7% from new audiences. Beyond the numbers, audience feedback was that the project succeeded in generating real empathy for people forced to flee their homes. The content felt fresh and authentic and offered a unique use case for a platform that went beyond the standard social storytelling on other platforms. As an added victory, anecdotal evidence suggests that WhatsApp Channels are highly utilized by communities who themselves have been forced to flee. With the feedback from our consultation group, we feel that those who lived the real version of the fictionalized story got a front-row seat to the thousands who chose to engage and embrace that story and the challenges that come with it.
